International environmental law is a dynamic and constantly changing branch of public international law.
That is so because states and groups of states understand, and consistently confirm, their commitment to protecting our increasingly fragile planet from environmentally harmful activities. Unavoidably, however, collaboration between states sometimes produces problems and disputes. This is the inevitable result of the huge amount of international trade, cross-border transport, the exploitation of shared resources and pollution.
Climate change, driven to a large extent by human activity, has added a complicating dimension: it has unquestionably highlighted the need for states to work together to combat the adverse effects that scientists and environmentalists are warning us about.
International environmental law and climate change covers an extensive area of international law and policy and includes the sub-issues of population, biodiversity, ozone depletion, preserving the Arctic and Antarctic regions, the movement of toxic and hazardous substances including pollution across boundaries by land, sea and air, the dumping of waste, conservation of marine living resources and forests, nuclear damage and, of course, global climate change.
We understand the current issues and keep abreast of the debates. We also have an excellent grasp of the plethora of international environmental laws and policies.
We can help in the following areas:
We advise states who have made commitments to the international community on how they can and should comply with those international commitments by, for example, incorporating the international standards that they have accepted into their own domestic legal orders. We can undertake a complete due diligence of a state’s domestic laws and policies, recommend changes where these are needed, and even prepare draft legislation and policies for states at a national level.
We also represent states in disputes that they have with other states, not just in consequence of breaches of treaties but also in circumstances where a state has been injured by the actions of another.
We frequently advise multi-national corporations on compliance issues, both with international standards as well as with the domestic regimes of the states in whose territories they set up business. We also represent multi-national corporations in disputes with host states, when they arise.