The following statement by Judge Sir Robert Jennings, President of the International Court of Justice, was
read to the plenary session of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro on
11 June 1992 by Mr Eduardo Valencia-Ospina, Registrar of the International Court of Justice. Sub-titles have
been added by RECIEL.
It is my purpose, in this brief intervention, to call
attention to the proper role of the International
Court of Justice in relation to the twin questions of
the environment and ‘sustainable development’,
and in which, according to Principle 4 of the Rio
Declaration, ‘environmental protection shall consti-
tute an integral part of the development process’.
That the Court has a role to play in the settlement of
disputes is now envisaged in Agenda 21, and I will
return to that in a moment. But first 1 want to draw
attention to its potential role in the actual further
development of international law, in order to be
able to cope with the very large questions of legal
development raised by the environmental problem.
Tasks for Public
International Law
The core legal system for these matters has to be
public international law. The dangers to the envi-
ronment are global and therefore international in
character. Accordingly the legal answers have to be
international too. In some respects no doubt valu-
able contributions can be made by altruistic initia-
tions by States prepared to set an example. But in
the end it is generally applicable principles and
rules that are necessary.
Furthermore, the preparatory work for the
Conference showed very clearly from the beginning
that it is not possible to seek solutions only in terms
of the environment. Inextricably involved are also
questions of development law, of poverty, of the dis-
tribution of raw materials and other resources, of
international finance and of the transfer of tech-
nologies.
New Principles Needed
In a word, the legal problems of urgently develop-
ing international legal principles and rules to cope
with these matters is an immense task. A begin-
ning can be made by agreements, preferably in the
form of clearly binding instruments made in accor-
dance with the basic law of treaties, to deal to
whatever extent may be found to be possible, with
particular and specific questions. But there should
also be developments in the principles and rules of
general customary international law, having regardto the large syllabus of general international legal
change that will be necessary to begin to cope
with these new problems; or at least problems
which, if not always very new, are newly and
recently emerged to the consciousness and atten-
tion of governments.
This will not be easy to achieve because, although
passion, enthusiasm and constructive indignation
are readily kindled concerning, for example, the
destruction of the rain forest, or the depletion of the
ozone layer, it is at the present time not so easy to
harness a like degree of forceful and effective
enthusiasm for the appreciation and recognition of
the importance of creating or developing the neces-
sary and appropriate international law and institu-
tions. Yet that is precisely what is needed at the
present time.