PT154.S3.P4.Q22

PrepTest 154 - Section 3 - Passage 4 - Question 22

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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Main Conclusion · Scholars should study negotiations and treaties
And how environmental principles inform those negotiations and treaties.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
Show answer
22.

Which one of the following ██████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████

a

Because of their █████████████ █████████████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ █████████████ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██████████ █████████████ ██████████

The author never comments on the quality of international court decisions.

1%
b

The precautionary principle ██ ███ █████████ ████ █ ████████████ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ █████ ███ █████████████

The author doesn’t describe whether the precautionary principle might have some concern with the government’s relationship to private industries. So we don’t have evidence of (B).

4%
c

Nations are rarely ████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ██ █████████ █████████████ █████████████ ████

Supported, because we know that court decisions are not the primary means of resolving international disputes. Given that “nations only rarely abide” by the purported environmental norms, this suggests that it’s rare for nations to sue other nations in court to hold them legally accountable.

84%
d

Most violations of █████████ █████████████ █████████████ ███ ██████ ████ █████████████ █████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ████

The author doesn’t tell us what causes “most” violations of customary international law.

8%
e

Established norms of █████████ █████████████ █████████████ ███ ████ █████████ ███████ █████████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ █████████

Although the author notes that nations have rarely attempted to stop harmful pollutants from crossing borders, this doesn’t imply an opinion about whether norms that address pollutants are “outdated.”

3%

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