Progressive Development of International Environmental Law: Legislate or Litigate?

Have international courts been too conservative in handling environmental cases? The overall conclusion is obvious: progressive arguments about the environment do not normally appeal to States, and they are therefore not made in court. The very considerable progress in developing international environmental law we have witnessed in the thirty years since I started writing on the subject has not been led by courts or tribunals. Inter-State litigation is an important and useful tool in upholding the rule of law, affirming the development of a coherent body of law, and applying it to the facts, but it is not the way to answer the problems posed by those who seek better, more progressive, or more radical solutions to the world's many environmental problems. For that we must turn to governments and international institutions. Stronger political action on achieving the objectives of multilateral environmental agreements is what the world needs to tackle its growing environmental crisis, not more law-making or more litigation