Article contents
Can Domestic Environmental Courts Implement International Environmental Law? A Framework for Institutional Analysis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2023
Abstract
The rapid and widespread establishment of domestic environmental courts and tribunals raises important questions regarding their implications for international environmental law and global environmental governance. I use an interdisciplinary, multi-method approach to consider the capacity of domestic environmental courts to identify and apply norms and principles of international environmental law in domestic opinions. I first review existing literature, identifying jurisdiction, judicial discretion, and a court's position in a legal system as key institutional determinants of this capacity. I then develop a typology of domestic environmental courts and tribunals, which suggests that, all else being equal, a court with national geographic jurisdiction that also enjoys attributes of broad subject-matter jurisdiction and discretion may be expected to be best equipped to implement norms and principles of international environmental law. Next, I integrate existing assessments of environmental court presence with original outreach and web research to identify all countries which possess environmental courts, and assess a subset of eight existing national-level institutions. The analysis of this subset highlights the diversity of institutional models that can incorporate theorized best practices. Based on these findings, I draw several theoretical conclusions: specifically (i) the relevance of environmental court research to individual- and institutional-level analysis in transnational and international environmental law, (ii) the need for further legal-institutional analysis in global environmental governance scholarship, and (iii) the opportunity for further interdisciplinary analysis of the role of domestic courts in environmental governance.
Keywords
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
Footnotes
I am grateful to Michele Betsill for support throughout the authorship process. I also acknowledge the input of Dimitris Stevis, Courtenay Daum, and Rebecca Gruby, feedback from attendees of the Utrecht Conference on Earth System Governance, and the exceptional support of anonymous reviewers for TEL. Any errors or omissions are my own.
Competing interests: The author declares none.
References
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55 E.g., Y. Lupu, ‘Best Evidence: The Role of Information in Domestic Judicial Enforcement of International Human Rights Agreements’ (2013) 67(3) International Organization, pp. 469–503; B.A. Simmons, ‘Compliance with International Agreements’ (1998) 1(1) Annual Review of Political Science, pp. 75–93.
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71 As Warnock rightly cautions, ‘[t]hese bodies are overwhelmingly seen as a “good thing”. In the main, the scholarship does not acknowledge that they are highly vulnerable institutions, susceptible to changing political climates’: Warnock, n. 19 above, p. 4.
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102 Where such contact information could be identified, this approach was followed. Where only consular, mission, and/or embassy contacts could be identified, the approach was modified. However, for each country except the US and Democratic People's Republic of Korea, two efforts were made to establish contact. Additionally, I followed all suggested avenues for follow-up engagement.
103 L. Baum, Specializing the Courts (University of Chicago Press, 2010).
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110 Records on file with author.
111 Personal communication with Prof. S. Pongboonjun.
112 Personal communication with Justice S. Okong'o.
113 National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, s. III(14)(1).
114 Bolivia Constitution, Art. 189.
115 Personal communication with Registrar H. Johnson.
116 Personal communication with Judge M. Wik.
117 Personal communication with Justice S. Okong'o.
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119 Bolivia Constitution, Art. 186.
120 India National Green Tribunal Act, s. 20.
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122 The Environmental Commission of Trinidad & Tobago, ‘Vision and Mission’, available at: http://www.ec.gov.tt/index.php/about-us/vision-and-mission.
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132 E.g., when considering the capacity of domestic courts to address scientific and technical complexity in Urgenda, analysts lauded the introduction of experts into the legal sphere, highlighting their capacity to interpret complexity alongside judges’ capacity to interpret legal precepts, including precaution: S. Roy & E. Woerdman, ‘Situating Urgenda v The Netherlands within Comparative Climate Change Litigation’ (2016) 34(2) Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law, pp. 165–89.
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