Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword by David D. Caron
- TRANSBOUNDARY HARM IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE TRAIL SMELTER ARBITRATION – HISTORY, LEGACY, AND REVIVAL
- PART TWO TRAIL SMELTER AND CONTEMPORARY TRANSBOUNDARY HARM – THE ENVIRONMENT
- PART THREE TRAIL SMELTER AND CONTEMPORARY TRANSBOUNDARY HARM – BEYOND THE ENVIRONMENT
- Annex A Convention Between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada Relative to the Establishment of a Tribunal to Decide Questions of Indemnity and Future Regime Arising from the Operation of Smelter at Trail, British Columbia
- Annex B Trail Smelter Arbitral Tribunal Decision, April 16, 1938
- Annex C Trail Smelter Arbitral Tribunal March 11, 1941, Decision
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword by David D. Caron
- TRANSBOUNDARY HARM IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE TRAIL SMELTER ARBITRATION – HISTORY, LEGACY, AND REVIVAL
- PART TWO TRAIL SMELTER AND CONTEMPORARY TRANSBOUNDARY HARM – THE ENVIRONMENT
- PART THREE TRAIL SMELTER AND CONTEMPORARY TRANSBOUNDARY HARM – BEYOND THE ENVIRONMENT
- Annex A Convention Between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada Relative to the Establishment of a Tribunal to Decide Questions of Indemnity and Future Regime Arising from the Operation of Smelter at Trail, British Columbia
- Annex B Trail Smelter Arbitral Tribunal Decision, April 16, 1938
- Annex C Trail Smelter Arbitral Tribunal March 11, 1941, Decision
- Index
Summary
PERSPECTIVE
If you go to Trail, British Columbia, as most of the contributors to this volume did in March 2003, you can still see one of the two 409-foot smokestack built there by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company in the mid-1920s. It was this smokestack that accelerated a chain of events that ultimately produced the Trail Smelter arbitration and etched the name of this tiny Canadian town into the annals of international law. Nestled in an alcove along the shores of the remote but majestic Columbia River, Trail seems an unlikely setting for a case that would assume a prominent role in the law of nations. But viewing the fateful smokestack, which seems somewhat diminished by the combined effect of the smelter's much expanded facilities and the surrounding peaks of the Canadian Rockies, one contributor to this book was moved to exclaim “arbitration works – the arbitration worked.” It was a rare, unequivocal endorsement of international law, especially in such an improbable context.
Certainly, the Columbia River Valley, from northeastern Washington state upstream to Trail, is no longer routinely bathed in toxic fumes from the smelter. Gone are the plumes of sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, and particulate matter that cut a swath of damage in those earlier years, even while Trail continues as one of the world's most significant centers for mining and smelting. To this extent, the arbitration was undoubtedly a success.
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- Information
- Transboundary Harm in International LawLessons from the Trail Smelter Arbitration, pp. 1 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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