Future development of international environmental law

opportunities & challenges

Resumo

The primary purpose of International environmental law is to protect the global environment by setting legally binding (Hard Law) and non-binding (Soft Law) rules in terms of content, form, and structure, which the international community has developed during the last decades. However, despite all international efforts to protect the environment, pollution and destruction of the environment continue to increase in many areas and regions. Today’s environmental concerns and threats have exceeded the predictions of experts and scientists at the first International Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972. In reality, climate change, air pollution, water and soil, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, and desertification are the main problems facing humanity in today’s world. Thus, regardless of global efforts to adopt and enforce international environmental regulations, failure to reduce environmental degradation and pollution indicates the ineffectiveness and effectiveness of international environmental law. In this context, this study, based on a critical approach, wants to demonstrate, on the one hand, the existing capacity for the development of international environmental law and, on the other hand, the legal obstacles faced for global environmental protection.