ABSTRACT
The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, was the first truly international conference to broach environment concerns. Initially, concerns the human environment within the international legal system were raised in the context of bilateral State-to-State relations, in conjunction with issues such as the territorial sovereignty of States, or injury caused to the State, rather than discretely with regard to the environment. The bulk of international environmental regulation presumably follows the pattern of bilateralism. Treaty instruments regulate a broad variety of environmental areas. The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention provides for general principles in this area and allocates legislative and enforcement powers between coastal states and flag states. The Framework Convention on Climate Change has 197 States-parties. The Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention formulates quantitative restrictions on carbon emissions from industrialised countries.
