Self-study
P1
In the absence of international statutes prohibiting nations from causing each other environmental damage, scholars of international environmental law typically focus on trying to identify and clarify norms of "customary international law": that body of commonly accepted—but not formalized—legal principles that is manifest in the behavior of nations toward one another. ███
Intro to Topic ·
Environmental principles considered as norms of customary international law
There's no explicitly written international law that prohibit countries from engaging in certain behaviors that could damage the environment of another country. So scholars have to look at the unwritten principles to understand how countries behave in this regard.
Two Principles/Norms ·
1. Don't harm your neighbors; 2. Take due care to avoid risk of (1)
Say you and I are countries. We share a river. I'm upstream of you. (1) would mean that I tell my industries not to dump pollutants into the river. (2) would mean that I tell my industries to think about what other harms might occur and take precautions to prevent them from occurring.
P2
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Criterion ·
Principals are norms only if nations follow them
Apparently there's a distinction between a "principle" (like the two stated in the previous paragraph) and a "norm" which is defined here as what nations actually do. So if a nation doesn't abide by the principle, then it's not a "norm." Okay... where is this going?
Application of Criterion ·
Nations do not abide by these principles
E.g., they let pollutants travel downstream to their neighbors. So these principles are not norms.
P3
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Facts ·
Nations and scholars both say one thing and do another
Nations say one thing and do another. They speak as if these are norms but they do not behave accordingly. Scholars also say one thing and do another. They say they based their research on what nations do but actually debate more about what nations say.
Sub-Conclusion / Major Premise ·
These "norms" are not actually norms
Author claims that these so called "norms" are just ideological systems.
P4
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Main Conclusion ·
Scholars should stop studying international court decisions
Most environmental disputes are being resolved directly via negotiations and treaties, not by going to international court.
Main Conclusion ·
Scholars should study negotiations and treaties
And how environmental principles inform those negotiations and treaties.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
27.
The author states that there ██ █ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████████ █████████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
the extent to █████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████ █████████████ █████████████ ███
This is much more abstractly stated than we would expect, but it’s correct. The author notes that
b
the proportion of █████████████ █████████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████ █████████████ █████████████ ███
The author doesn’t comment on a lack of systematic empirical investigation into treaties and negotiations.
c
the relative success █████ ██ █████████ █████████ █████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ █████████████ █████████████ █████████
The author doesn’t comment on a lack of systematic empirical investigation into success rates for different legal remedies.
d
the extent to █████ ███ █████████ █████████ ████████ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████████████ ████████
The author doesn’t comment on a lack of systematic empirical investigation into the level to which pollution that crosses is in violation of treaties. Although the author does indicate that we don’t have enough empirical investigation into how often pollution crosses international boundaries, this is different from the level to which the pollution that does cross crosses in violation of a treaty.
e
the extent to █████ ████████ ██ █████████████ █████████████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ █████████████ █████████████ ███
The author doesn’t comment on a lack of systematic empirical investigation into the level of agreement concerning which principles are norms.