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International Law and Environmental Legislation in Developing Countries, with Special Reference to India and Indonesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2009

J.M. Otto
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1. introduction

Attention for the pollution and degradation of the human environment over the last decades has resulted in an unprecedented increase of activities regarding environmental policy and law at both international and national levels. Since 1972 international resolutions and agreements have distinguished between environmental problems of developing countries and those of industrial countries. In that year it was proclaimed at the Stockholm UN-Conference on the Human Environment that in the developing countries most of the environmental problems are caused by under-development. The extremely complex situation in those countries in this regard was made known to the world community again by the so-called Brundtland Commission in its final report.

Type
Current Legal Developments
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , April 1991 , pp. 109 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 1991

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References

1. World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (1987).

2. In 1980 the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the Arab Development Bank for Economic Development in Africa issued together with some other institutions a Declaration of Environmental Policies and Procedures relating to Economic Development. A critical look at their performance is taken by B.M. Rich, The Multilateral Development Banks. Environmental Policy, and the United States, 12 Ecology Law Quarterly 977–996 (1985).

3. K. Ramakrishna, The emergence of Environmental Law in the Developing Countries: A Case Study of India, 12 Ecology Law Quarterly 907–936 (1985); K. Hardjasoemantri, Environmental legislation in Indonesia (1989); H.F. Munneke en J.M. Otto, Milieu-wetgeving in India en Indonesié, een vergelijkende studie, 5 Milieu 1–7(1990).

4. United Nations Environment Programme, Register of International Treaties and Other Agreements in the field of Environment, UNEP/GC. 15/Inf.2, 1989; R. Munro and J. Lammers, Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development Legal Principles and Recommendations 133–143 (1986) contains another list which counts 148 agreements. That list contains both bilateral and multilateral agreements up till 1985.

5. See on the role of custom: I. Brownlie, A Survey of International Customary Rules of Environmental Protection, in L. Teclaff and A. Utton (eds.), International Environmental Law 1–11 (1974).

6. Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment 1972, Declaration of the Governing Council of UNEP 1982, UN GA Resolution on the World Charter for Nature 1982.

7. R. Munro and J. Lammers, Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development Legal Principles and Recommendations (1986); see also supra note 4.

8. Id. xi–xii

9. Id. 1–2

10. Published in 15 Environmental Policy and Law 64–69 (1985); see about its preparations Prof. Mr. St. Munadjat Danusaputro, Towards an ASEAN Environmental Law (1984).

11. The exception is the 1979 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials to which Indonesia is a party and India is not.

12. H. Jeffrey Leonard, Confronting Industrial Pollution in Rapidly Industrializing Countries: Myths, Pitfalls, and Opportunities, 12 Ecology Law Quarterly 811 (1985).

13. R. Baker, Institutional innovation, development and environmental management: an ‘administrative trap’ revisited. Part I, 9 Public Administration and Development 38–40 (1989); P. Birnie, The Role of Developing Countries in Nudging the International Whaling Commission from Regulating Whaling to Encouraging Nonconsumptive Use of Whales, 12 Ecology Law Quarterly 937–976 (1985) on the initial positions of development countries towards the older environmental treaties; W. Kakebeeke, Milieu als (inter)nationale prioriteit, in G. Spaargaren el al. (eds.). Internationaal Milieubeleid 34 (1989); G. Spaargaren and A. Mol, Epiloog, in Id. at 192 and 195–197.

14. H. Wood, The United Nations World Charter for Nature: The Developing Nations' Initiative to Establish Protections, 12 Ecology Law Quarterly 977–996 (1985); K. Ramakrishna, supra note 2,908– 909; S. Danusaputro, supra note 10, at 47 and 60.

15. R. Munro and J. Lammers, supra note 4, at 37–133, have commented extensively on the origin and significance of these principles.

16. H. Wood, supra note 14, at 985.

17. However, according to a publication of Dutch foreign aid authorities, training in e.i.a. is being provided presently to Indian civil servants, Internationale Samenwerking, Dec. 1989, at 16–18.

18. According to K. Hardjasoemantri, supra note 3, at 17, cultural patterns, tradition and outlook will determine which technique is best suited to channel public participation in Indonesia.