Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

McIntyre, Owen --- "Environmental protection and the ecosystem approach" [2019] ELECD 69; in McCaffrey, C. Stephen; Leb, Christina; Denoon, T. Riley (eds), "Research Handbook on International Water Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 126

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Water Law

Editor(s): McCaffrey, C. Stephen; Leb, Christina; Denoon, T. Riley

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781785368073

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Environmental protection and the ecosystem approach

Author(s): McIntyre, Owen

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

Requirements for environmental and ecosystems protection of international watercourses, long integral to the very definition and fabric of international water law, are today exemplified by Part IV of the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention, which includes articles on protection of international watercourse ecosystems, prevention of significant harm from pollution, introduction of alien species, and protection of the marine environment. Such obligations continue to evolve rapidly in the general practice of States. Even where water treaties predate general environmental concern and have not included such provisions, they are often amended to incorporate such values or interpreted by international tribunals as requiring such protection, especially in the light of the subsequent environmental commitments of the States concerned. Effective implementation of the extensive and far-reaching environmental and ecological obligations emerging in international water law is aided by the parallel elaboration of sophisticated corresponding rules and principles in the field of international environmental law.