Document Type : Article

Author

Assistant Prof., Department of Law, Zabol University, Zabol, Iran

Abstract

Environmental impact assessment is an obligation belongs to international environmental law sphere in order to protect the environment which asks States to determine the likely impacts of a proposed activity or project on the environment of another country or countries. The International Court of Justice has introduced it as a requirement under general international law in Pulp Mills case and San Juan case pursuant to ITLOS’s explicit recognition of customary status of the EIA. Jurists have different opinions on the EIA, like; the way of becoming a customary rule and especially on the content of it. Based on the descriptive-analytical methodology with the help of library sources, the present article tried to deduce the process of consolidation, customary status and content of this obligation through international judgments/awards and documents and concluded that this customary obligation establishes when there is a risk of significant adverse transboundary impact. If there is such a risk, assessment is done. So, there are three stages; the preliminary assessment measuring the possibility of transboundary harm, conducting the assessment and the post-project assessment that provides valuable information for similar subsequent activities and the validity of assessments.

Keywords

1. فارسی
الف) کتاب‌ها
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2. کیس، الکساندر؛ شیلتون، دینا؛ وریمانتری، کریستوفر (1389)،کتابچة قضایی حقوق محیط زیست، ترجمة محسن عبداللهی، تهران: خرسندی.
 
ب) مقالات
3. علی اوغلی، سیمین؛ میان‌آبادی، حجت؛ مرید، سعید (1397)، «کنوانسیون ارزیابی اثرات زیست‌محیطی فرامرزی: اسپو»، سومین همایش ملی صیانت از منابع طبیعی و محیط‌زیست، دانشگاه محقق اردبیلی.
4. مشهدی، علی؛ شاه‌حسینی، عطیه (1395)، «پیشگیری از خسارات زیست‌محیطی در پرتو طرح 2001 کمیسیون حقوق بین‌الملل مبنی بر پیشگیری از آسیب فرامرزی ناشی از فعالیت‌های خطرناک»، مطالعات حقوق عمومی، دورة 46، ش 2.
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2. انگلیسی
A) Books
7. Birnie, P., Boyle, A., and Redgwell, C., (2009), International Law & the Environment, oxford University Press.
8. Sands, Ph., Peel, J., (2012), Principles of International Environmental Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 
B) Articles
9. Bendel, J., Harrison, J., (2017), “Determining the legal nature and content of EIAs in International Environmental Law: What does the ICJ decision in the joined Costa Rica v Nicaragua/Nicaragua v Costa Rica cases tell us?” QIL, Vol.42, pp. 13-21.
10. Knox, J. H., (2002), “The myth and reality of transboundary environmental impact assessment”, American Journal of International Law, Vol.96, No.2, pp. 291-319.
11. Koivurova, T., (2011), “Transboundary Environmental Impact assessment in International Law” in Marsden, S. & Koivurova, T. (eds.), Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in the European Union: The Espoo Convention and its Kiev Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment, London: Earthscan, pp. 15-38.
12. Marsden, S.,(2017), “Determining significance for EIA in International Environmental Law”,QIL Zoom-in, Vol.42.
13. Ruozzi, E., (2017), “The Obligation to Undertake an Environmental Assessment in the Jurisprudence of the ICJ: A Principle in Search of Autonomy”European Journal of Risk Regulation, Vol. 8, Issue 1, pp. 158-169.
14. Talmon, S., “Determining Customary International Law: The ICJ’s Methodology between Induction, Deduction and Assertion”, EJIL,Vol.26, No.2, pp. 417-443.
15. Tanaka, Y., (2017), “Case Note Costa Rica v. Nicaragua and Nicaragua v. Costa Rica: Some Reflections on the Obligation to Conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment”, Review of European Community & International Environmental Law, Vol. 26, No.1, 91-97.
16. Valdez, A.I.,(2019), “Beyond the Arbitral Ruling: A Trans boundary Environmental Impact Assessment in the South China Sea”, Asian Journal of International Law, Vol. 9, pp. 251-274.
17. Yang, T., (2019) “The Emergence of the Environmental Impact Assessment Duty as a Global Legal Norm and General Principle of Law”, HASTINGS LAW JOURNAL, Vol.70, pp. 525-572.
 
C) Documents
18. Case Concerning French Underground Nuclear Tests between New Zealand France, 1995 ICJ (Order of Sep.22)
19. Case Concerning Gabcikovo- Nagymaros Project between Hungary- Slovakia, 1997 ICJ (Judgment of Sep.25)
20. Case Concerning Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay between Argentina and Uruguay, ICJ, 2010, (Judgment of Apr.20)
21. ICJ Rep 1997, Judge Weeramantary´ s Dissenting Opinion
22. ICJ Rep 1995, Judge Weeramantary´ s Dissenting Opinion
23. ICJ Rep 2015, Separate opinion of judge Oda
24. Separate opinion of Judge Bhandari, 2015
25. Separate opinion of Judge Donoghue, 2015
26. Separate opinion of Judge Dugard, 2015
27. ITLOS Advisory Opinion of 1st February 2011
28. PCA Rep, 2016, Case Concerning the South China dispute between Philippine and China
29. World Charter of Nature
30. UN Conference on Environment and Development
32. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea