Historical Development of

Environmental Law

Wahyu Yun Santoso

Email: wahyu.yuns@ugm.ac.id
Contact: 081328605445
Influence of Environmental Issues to the Law
(Lynton K. Caldwell, IUCN)

“Legal principle post-1960 much influenced by the

concept of environment/ecology rather than the law”

legal concept

environmental concept
 BASIC CONCEPT OF
ENVIRONMENT
1. Wholistic Understanding

ABIOTIC

BIOTIC CULTURE

It is important to concern on the integrity of these aspects.

2. Environment: Changes, Complexity,

and Uncertainty
 COMMON PROBLEMS (4P)

1. POPULATION

2. POVERTY

3. POLLUTION

4. POLICY
Some Relevant Cases
 Minamata Case (1921 – 1997)

• Neurologis:
• Weakness
• Lost of sight
• Brain damages
• Coma  death
• 1959  public disclosure that the
sympthon is caused by toxification
on metilmercury (Hg) from waste
materials of Chisoo Co. Ltd.
(PVC/plastic producer)
 Itai-Itai (Its Hurt) 痛い Case

• Sympthon:
1. Yellow color on teeth
2. Less smell ability
3. Dry mouth
4. Decrease amount of red blood cell
5. Damage on backbone cell
6. Problem of kidney
7. Problem on calcium metabolism
8. Deform of bone structure

• Mining activities (gold, silver, cadmium)

in Toyama Perfecture started in 1912
• 1968  known by research that it is
caused by cadmium (cd) intoxification.
Silent Spring - 1962
(Rachel Carson)
 Torrey Canyon - 1967
• Southwest coast of
England
• 80.000 ton crude oil
• Pollute UK coast and
French sea
• 200 mil square of pollution
• 2,5 million galon of
chemical dispersants
• Damages  UK (6 mill
Pound) and France (40 mill
Frank)
 Seminar - 1968
“the Careless Technology”

 Gareth Hardin, “the Tragedy of the

Commons”
 Critic for the invisible hand theory – Adam
Smith, the Wealth of Nations
 Another relevant spin-off The game theory
– John Nash
 Stockholm Conference on
the Human Environment 5-16 Juni 1972

• Theme: Only one Earth

• Stockholm Declaration
• Action Plan
• Recomendation for establishment an
organisation  UNEP
• Earth Watch
 The U.N. Law of the Sea - 1982

• Chapter XII
• Ocean Function:
1.Fisheries  overfishing, target of pollution
2.Trade & trasportation  oil pollution from ship
3.Mining  sedimentation, oil pollution, changing of
marine ecosystem
4.Tourism  degradation of coastal area, corral
reefs, mangroves, and pollution
5.Last resorts of wastes  land based, dumping.
 Bhopal Case - 1984

• The Bhopal disaster was an

industrial disaster that occurred in
Bhopal, India, resulting in the
death of about 5,000 people.
• The incident took place in the
early hours of the morning of
December 3, 1984, in the heart of
the city of Bhopal in the Indian
state of Madhya Pradesh. A Union
Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant
released 40 tonnes of methyl
isocyanate (MIC) gas, killing
between 2500 and 5000 people.
Bhopal is frequently cited as
one of the world's worst
industrial disasters. The
International Medical
Commission on Bhopal was
established in 1993 to
respond to the disasters
 Chernobil Disaster - 1986
• On April 26, 1986, the crew at unit 4 of the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant (located in Pripyat, Ukarine, part of
the former Soviet Union) conducted an experiment on
the turbine generator with the safety system switched
off.
• A steam explosion caused a catastrophic accident that
blew off the 1000-ton roof of the building and set off a
series of additional explosions, leading to an eventual
meltdown of the nuclear cores.
• Contaminating large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and
Russia. Radioactive clouds drifted as far as Europe and
the eastern United States.
• The Chernobyl nuclear fallout
was ten times more powerful
than the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima and is the worst
disaster in the history of nuclear
power.
• The 45,000 inhabitants of
Pripyat, 4km away from the
Chernobyl power plant, were
not evacuated until 36 hours
after the accident. For 9 days,
fires at the Chernobyl plant
continued to burn and emit
radioactivity.
• 130,000 people from
settlements within 30km of the
reactor were eventually
evacuated, but only after being
exposed to highly dangerous
levels of radiation.
 Our Common Future - 1987

• WCED Report (World Commission on

Environment and Development)
• Chief by GRO Harlem Bruntland (P.M.
Norwegia).
• Sustainable Development concept
 UNCHED (the United Nations
Conference on Human Environment and
Development) 3 – 14 Juni 1992

• Mega Conference: 114 head of states, more than 1000

delegations from 178 states of the world, representative of
1400 NGOs, and broadcasted by 9000 mass media.
• Negotiation of north – south
• Result:
1. AGENDA 21
2. Rio Declaration on Human Environment and
Development
3. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
4. The Convention on Biological Diversity
5. A Set of Forrest Principles
Principles
 PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL
LAW MADE BY
STOCKHOLM & RIO DE JANEIRO

1. State Responsibility Principle

2. Right to Sound Environment
3. Integrated Approach
4. Popular Participations on Environmental Matters
5. Access of Informations
6. Precautionary Principles
7. Polluter Pays Principle
8. Strict Liability
9. Inter-generational equity
10. the duty to cooperate
11. Share of and access to technology
12. Common Use of Natural Resources
13. Common but Differentiated Responsibility
Harry Supriyono/04/2002
Sustainable development
Definition: 'dev't that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs’ (The 1987 Bruntland Report, “Our Common
Future”)

Preservation & Protection of the environment

Protection: general principle which includes both abstaining
from harmful activities and taking affirmative measures to
ensure that env'l deterioration does not occur.
Preservation: long term perspective which take into account
the rights and interests of future generations for whom
natural resources should be safeguarded.
Preventive principle
• golden rule for safe-guarding the environment.
• It requires state to exercise 'due diligence', which means to
act reasonably and in 'good faith' and to regulate public and
private activities subject to its jurisdiction or control that
are possibly harmful to any part of the env't.

Polluter pays principle

Definition: 'the costs of pollution prevention, control and
reduction measures are to be borne by the polluter'.
The principle obliges the polluter to incorporate the costs of
pollution control in its own costs, to 'internalize' them.

Concept of INTERNALIZE THE EXTERNALIZED

Precautionary principle
• There is no comprehensive and autoritative definition.
• Based on the assumptions:
* environmental is fragile;
* limited accuration of science to predict the damages; and
* alternatives with less risk and cost are available out there.

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

(contains 27 principles); Principle 15:
"In order to protect the environment, the precautionary
approach shall be widely applied by States according to their
capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible
damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a
reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent
environmental degradation."
Common heritage of mankind
definition: the ocean resources are the common heritage of
mankind, thus it is a common responsibility to protect and
preserve the ocean.

Basic concept:
• exclusive use for peaceful purposes;
• rational utilization in a spirit of conservation; dan
• good management and transmission to generations to
come.

Common concern of humanity

• General basis for the int'l community to act..
• The respect and protection of such concern is the legal
basis of regulation which imposes obligations on states,
regional or local authorities and can limit, when necessary,
individual freedoms and rights, but which also can support
such rights.
• An alternative to contract system?
Common but differentiated responsibility
developed from the application of general principles of law
'equity' and recognition of the condition of developing
countries in the implementation of environmental law.

Intergenerational equity
(right of future generation)
• right of each generation to benefit from and develop the
natural and cultural patrimony inherited from previous
generations in such manner that it can be passed on to
future generations in no worse condition than it was
received.
• each generation should be required to conserve the diversity
and maintain the quality of the planet, and provide each
member with equitable rights of access to the legacy of past
generations and should conserve this access for future
generations.