Though environmental protection is an urgent problem today, the notion as such has only emerged as a legal term in the last 30 years. It was, broadly speaking, not earlier than the 1960's that states began to enact increasingly comprehensive national laws for the protection of their internal environment. If national legislation in this field is a relatively new phenomenon, the conclusion of special international agreements for the protection of the environment is an even more recent activity.

No unified or codified Belgian system of law existed before the French Revolution, as each county, principality or region had in effect its own set of laws, and one does therefore before 1795 refer to Flemish, Brabant, Liège, Namur, Waesland, etc. laws, or to specific customary laws of cities, e.g. Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, or of smaller towns, e.g. the customs of Alost, Eekloo, or the Judgements of Damme (for maritime law), to name but a few; these so-called coutumiers were published in both the French and Flemish (Dutch) languages.

The united nations recently issued a compilation of national legislation against racial discrimination. The publication, which has a 1991 imprint, bears the title: Second Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination: Global Compilation of National Legislation against Racial Discrimination. This volume covers 205 pages and carries the symbol: HR/PUB/90/8.

The Charter of the United Nations, which was signed in June 1945 at San Francisco, entrusts the UN with promoting and ensuring respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms “for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.” The General Assembly, in one of its first resolutions, declared in 1946 “that it is in the higher interests of humanity to put an immediate end to religious and so-called racial persecution and discrimination.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly December 10, 1948, is the most fundamental human rights instrument adopted by the United Nations. Since that time there have been numerous conventions and declarations aimed specifically at eliminating racial discrimination. These include the Declaration and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted November 20, 1963 and December 21, 1965, respectively, and the Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, adopted November 30, 1973.