Environmental Legislation

The connection between international environmental law and policy and developments at a national level is becoming significantly closer. In the past two decades, many developed countries have greatly increased the number of statutes enacted to address environmental matters. This growth can be seen, in part, as a reflection of the number of international conventions being negotiated multilaterally and bilaterally. In the last five years, there has also been an increasing trend for developing countries and countries whose economies are in transition to introduce environmental legislation. This growth in the number of conventions and the consequential increase in environmental statutes on the same subjects is not surprising, given that conventions almost invariably place obligations on signatory countries to take steps, legal and otherwise, to implement their provisions. As a result of the increasing awareness of environmental problems at a national level, more national environmental laws will be written, with similar approaches taken to similar problems. Greater similarity will also be encouraged by the fact that the law of developed countries is very often used as precedential material for the drafting of legislation in developing countries. Furthermore, the homogenization of legislative approaches is encouraged by the publication of model legislation being developed by secretariats of international environmental conventions. For example, the Basel Convention Secretariat has published a comprehensive set of model national provisions on the movement of hazardous waste. Finally, with more training programs being conducted for lawyers and others by UNEP, UNDP, and IUCN, common legislative approaches are often promoted. The connection between international environmental law and policy and developments at a national level is becoming significantly closer, and the law of developed countries is very often used as precedential material for the drafting of legislation in developing countries. Furthermore, homogenization of legislative approaches is encouraged by the publication of model legislation being developed by secretariats of international environmental conventions.