Principles of Environmental Law

Since the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), principles of environmental law, such as the precautionary principle and the polluter pays-principle, play an ever-increasing role in international and national environmental law and policy, as does the concept of sustainable development. The Rio principles are applied in many international environmental treaties and are codified in national legislation. With all these rapid developments in international and national environmental law, it becomes increasingly necessary to determine more precisely what the legal function is of principles of environmental law. However, a substantive discussion on the purpose the codification of principles in international treaties, EC-Directives and national environmental legislation is mostly avoided. Legal principles are considered to be binding standards of a high moral character for decision-makers and judges. This book offers the answer to the question what is the role of environmental legal principles in international, European, and national environmental law. The role of environmental legal principles has been studied from the perspective of legal theory and international and European law, and from a comparative legal perspective. This book thus provides insight in the future development of environmental law.