ABSTRACT

Environmental litigation before international courts and tribunals (ICTs) has become a dynamic field of global environmental governance. In the absence of a special international environmental court, disputes or claims with environmental relevance come up across a wide spectrum of ICTs and in a wide range of circumstances. In particular, ICTs need to tread a thin line between adherence to state sovereignty over natural resources on one side and the protection of common interests in the environmental asset at stake or the prevention of transboundary environmental harm on the other. In environmental cases, their primary role is to adjudicate disputes between states, or between states and other actors, arising out of the interpretation and application of international law with respect to environmental protection. ICTs can determine what the law requires by providing authoritative interpretations, and adapt the law to new circumstances through dynamic and evolutionary interpretation.