Chapter 20
Legal Protection of the Environment

Introduction

Content

Objectives

Quiz

Links

Graphs

glossary

Corrections

Updates

Amendments

Introduction

Living in a civilized society requires that we behave according to a set of rules. This "Rule of Law" is the hallmark of civilization since earliest times. The rules regulate how individuals, institutions, and the state can deal with each other. Breaking the rules is punished with various sanctions, from small fines to imprisonment.

The environment might be seen as a new player in this game. The environment needs to be protected by law and a polluter may be punished. This is because we are dependent on the environment, we live in the environment, and also because the environment has a monetary value. We legally protect the environment for our own sake and because of its intrinsic value.

The very first laws written to protect the environment are from the 19th century. But it was not until the 1960s that more far reaching work to bring "law and order" into our relationship with the environment started. First, special toxic, polluting substances, such as DDT and PCB, were outlawed in many countries. Then several of the worst polluters, such as the metallurgic industry and several petrochemical sites, were scrutinized and permits were required for their activity. These permits were normally only valid for a limited period and thereafter a new permit required clear improvements. Later environmental quality standards – also called limits – were introduced. These gave a defined, highest acceptable level of a polluting substance in water, air, or soil. Any activity causing these limits to be surpassed would not be allowed.

A law requires an enforcement system for it to function. "Policing" is needed to keep track of activities that might be unlawful. Prosecutors, judges, and courts are needed to deal with those suspected of breaking environmental law. Regrettably, environmental law is often rather toothless. There are few inspectors who monitor activities and they have meager resources.

National environmental laws thus have clear restrictions. But a more basic limitation is that pollutants do not respect national borders and any efficient work to outlaw pollutants requires that the same or similar rules apply in several countries. This is the role of international environmental law. The development of international environmental law depends on international conventions and agreements between several countries. The next step is ratification of an agreement by the parliaments. The final step is inclusion in national environmental law. For example, long distance air-born pollutants, especially acid rain, have been reduced due to such agreements.

The Baltic Sea is an international water body with an unusually long history of international co-operation for its protection, at least if one considers that the first agreements were met when the iron curtain divided the Baltic Sea. The most important agreement is the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment in the Baltic Sea in its original form from 1974, but then significantly extended and improved in 1992.

We are now in a stage of considerable improvement of national and international environmental law. Let us hope that in the future we can also learn to deal in a civilized manner with our environment.