ABSTRACT
The principle which governs conflicts over transboundary pollution between states
was first elaborated in the Trail Smelter case of 1941.641 Many formulations have been subsequently advanced by the scholarly world for a principle that would govern the responsibility for transboundary pollution between state territories.642 A
consensus on the formulation of the expanded643 version of this principle started to
emerge when the 1972 Stockholm Declaration was adopted, principle 21 o f the
Declaration in particular was increasingly cited as the authoritative formulation:
States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles o f international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental (and developmental) policies and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment o f other States or o f areas beyond national jurisdiction.644
