ABSTRACT
International law is a decentralized legal order based on consensus, and the decentralized character applies both to the formation and to the implementation of the law. The development of national environmental law during the last two decades, which indeed constitutes a formidable legal innovation worldwide, has been based on the belief that law, being an instrument shaping human behavior, is also a suitable tool for the preservation of the environment. Experience shows that the law–making process is indeed used as a means not of freezing an existing situation, but indeed of achieving progress in environmental protection and in many other matters. The protection of the environment is only an example of this general phenomenon. The choice of procedural obligations is also well known in national environmental law because it is not always possible and less practicable to make rules which determine a specific substantive result for each and every case.
