Audiovisual Library of International Law

Edith Brown Weiss - Liability, Accountability and Compliance with International Environmental Law

·38 min·3 clips

Professor Edith Brown-Weiss explains why states avoid liability for transboundary pollution damage, despite a 1972 declaration.

Professor Edith Brown-Weiss of Georgetown University presents the final lecture in a mini-series on international environmental law, focusing on liability, accountability, and compliance. She begins by outlining state responsibility for breaches of international obligations, detailing remedies like cessation, reparation, and compensation. The lecture highlights the underdevelopment of liability for transboundary environmental harm, referencing the 1972 Stockholm Declaration and 1992 Rio Declaration. It explores conceptual issues, including liability for lawful activities and the International Law Commission's draft principles on hazardous activities. The discussion addresses the difficulty of compensating for natural resource damage, listing four valuation methods: restoration costs, market valuation, behavior use valuation, and contingent valuation. Examples include forests and ecosystems, where quantification is challenging. The lecture examines liability in the global commons, such as Antarctica or high seas, and mentions climate change litigation in national courts. It reviews specific international agreements, including the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol for living modified organisms and the Basel Convention's unratified liability protocol. Other examples include the Convention on International Liability for Damage from Space Objects and civil liability for nuclear damage. The lecture then shifts to private remedies, citing the principle of non-discrimination in the UN Convention on International Watercourses. It discusses criminal responsibility, referencing the Montreal Protocol, CITES, and proposals to criminalize ecocide. Finally, it analyzes compliance strategies, distinguishing implementation, compliance, enforcement, and effectiveness. Strategies include coercive measures, transparency methods, and positive incentives, with examples from the Montreal Protocol and Paris Agreement. The conclusion emphasizes moving beyond liability to broader accountability.

As heard by us

A disciplined survey of liability, redress, and compliance, with rare treaty practice at the center.

Edith Brown-Weiss lays out liability, accountability, and compliance in international environmental law with steady focus, beginning with state responsibility and the remedies that follow an internationally wrongful act.

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Why you'd press play

When you want the rules behind environmental harm, and the treaty shelf is very small today.

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