International Law in East Asia by Zou Keyuan

International Law in East Asia by Zou Keyuan

Author:Zou Keyuan [Keyuan, Zou]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Law, International
ISBN: 9781351562294
Google: Fi0xDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-05T03:39:01+00:00


Part IV

International Environmental Law

[7]

TRANSNATIONAL COOPERATION

FOR MANAGING THE CONTROL OF

ENVIRONMENTAL DISPUTES IN EAST

ASIA

Zou Keyuan*

1. Introduction

While the rest of world is in its economic doldrums, East Asia led by China is able to maintain high rate of economic growth. However, rapid economic growth, together with industrialisation and urbanisation, has caused environmental problems throughout the region. Asia faces a so-called ‘triad of environmental problems’-regional, international, and global-and the big question is how to create a framework that suits the region1 and is an effective vehicle for environmental protection so as to avoid the common phenomenon that economic development moves ahead at the sacrifice of environmental deterioration.

Various environmental problems, encompassing soil erosion, water logging, industrial pollution, deforestation and loss of natural habitats, prevail in Asia. Some could be very serious and extensive. For example, land degradation in Asia (20% of all vegetated land) exceeds the world average (17%); and the suspended load per square kilometre of drainage basin, as an indication of soil erosion, is three to eight times more in Asia than the world average.2 Even the spring 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, which, originated from China, bears a strong connection to environmental problems.3 Such problems, however, are like a boomerang that hurts the environment as well as economic development itself. According to the estimation by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the economic costs of environmental degradation in Asia are estimated to range from one to nine percent of national GNPs.4 Thus the principle of sustainable development should be strictly applied to Asian economic development.

Environmental degradation inevitably results in disputes within or beyond a State. Such disputes, if not properly dealt with, would endanger international and regional peace and security. Therefore, the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 199s called on States to provide ‘effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy’, and to ‘resolve their environmental disputes peacefully, by appropriate means and in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations’.5 Agenda 21 requests States to ‘further study and consider methods to broaden and make more effective the range of techniques available at present… for dispute avoidance and settlement. This may include mechanisms and procedures for the exchange of data and information, notification, and consultation regarding situations that might lead to disputes with other States in the field of sustainable development, and for effective peaceful means of dispute settlement in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations including, where appropriate, recourse to the International Court of Justice, and their inclusion in treaties relating to sustainable development’.6 Generally speaking, not only environmental disputes, but also other disputes between and/or among States should be resolved through peaceful means. This paper aims to assess the international mechanism for the avoidance and settlement of transboundary environmental disputes in the special context of the geographical sphere—East Asia. Therefore, three elements are essential in this paper: (a) International mechanism. Domestic mechanism will not be addressed here. That is to say, environmental



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