The cornerstone of modern International Environmental Law is the prohibition of transfrontier pollution, according to which States have the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States, or of areas beyond national jurisdiction. In addition, there is now a substantial body of international treaties laying down detailed regimes for various environmental sectors. Recent international conflicts have raised fundamental questions about the relationship between International Environmental Law and armed conflict. The notion that the rules of general International Environmental Law continue to apply during armed conflict is now well accepted. But the principles which are usually cited, remain at a very high level of abstraction. This thesis examines the extent to which international law has developed more detailed rules to protect the environment in international armed conflict. After a discussion of the main legal issues, the thesis concentrates on the marine environment, examining the relationship between naval warfare on the one hand, and multilateral environmental treaties on marine safety and prevention of marine pollution on the other. It concludes that the majority of these treaties do not apply during armed conflict, either because war damage is expressly excluded, or because the treaties do not apply to warships. As for the treaties that are in principle applicable during armed conflict, the analysis shows that, under international law, belligerent and neutral States have the legal right to suspend those treaties, wholly or partially. Finally, the author concludes that very few of the treaties considered take the new law of armed conflict into account, and that there remains a need for more detailed rules on environmental standards for military operations.

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Since the late 1980s, the terms of 'sustainable development' have been frequently referred to both in international environmental law instruments and in the doctrine. In spite of such references, however, sustainable development has remained poorly developed in terms of its meaning and of its practical and normative implications. This thesis purports to come out with a partial picture of what sustainable development means (or does not mean) in the restricted context of international environmental law. To do so, it will try to identify in which respect and how far sustainable development has influenced and has been reflected in the evolution of some selected principles of that law. Each principles is considered in an evolutionary perspective, from the time of its inception to the time of its 'association' to sustainable development.

Coral reefs are one of the most beautiful natural habitats found on the Earth and one of the more productive. As a source of food, or as a basis for tourism, these formations support many local communities, industries and economies. Coral reefs also protect shorelines through dissipating the force of waves and act as a catalyst for the formation of land suitable for human habitation. However, like many other ecosystems, humans are increasingly placing coral reefs under intense pressure from pollution, unsustainable practices, and climate change. This thesis considers the measures international law is taking to tackle some of these threats to coral reefs through promoting one conservation strategy, namely marine protected areas. The analysis provided is based upon an investigation into developments under a number of global multilateral environmental agreements and, as such, is the first time treaties like the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the World Heritage Convention, have been considered in detail from this perspective. Ultimately we shall see how a number of initiatives are being pursued under international law which promote such enclave strategies in the marine environment for the conservation of these vital ecosystems.

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The purpose of this thesis is to determine the extent to which it is possible to develop an environmental role for the law of tort. To date, the role of tort has been limited in this context by procedural and substantive difficulties in establishing liability (known as transaction costs). Furthermore, whereas environmental protection is a public interest objective, the law of tort is primarily a means of resolving private disputes. The common law has traditionally regarded private rights as being divisible from public interest issues such as environmental protection. The current debate has been prompted by a number of European Union and Council of Europe initiatives on the subject which consider developing tort in this manner by the introduction of a specialist environmental liability regime. However, much of the current debate lacks an appreciation of a fundamental issue, namely purpose of tort in contemporary Western society. This research seeks to make a valuable contribution by assessing the extent to which it is possible to ground an environmental application of tort in a sound conceptual basis. The thesis commences with an overview of the main torts which are relevant in an environmental context and the difficulties which have been experienced by plaintiffs in establishing liability. Given that the main limitation of tort is that it focuses on private interests; it is considered whether it is possible to develop a public interest model of tort which admits wider issues such as the desirability of environmental protection. This involves consideration of a range of issues, including the `philosophy' underpinning tort, the economics of tort, property law and insurability of environmental liability. It is concluded that it is possible, both in conceptual and practical terms, to develop a public interest model of tort and that, furthermore, there are potential benefits with such an approach. The principal advantage of tort is that it allows private individuals to participate in the policing of the environment. An analysis of EC policy on this subject demonstrates that this may provide the rationale for EC intervention in this field. In the light of these theoretical and policy objectives, the EC proposals, alluded to above, are discussed in depth. These initiatives are compared with solutions adopted by individual Member States which have already implemented their own environmental liability regimes. Conclusions are drawn regarding the extent to which such developments may succeed in increasing the efficacy of tort as a means of environmental protection and the wider implications of such an approach. It is concluded that a specialist environmental liability regime may be instrumental in developing a concept of `stewardship', in which proprietary interests in natural resources entail both rights and responsibilities.

The measurement of industries' environmental performance is evolving as society strives towards the ideal of sustainability. Environmental performance indicators within different industries are being developed in order that industry can measure and evaluate performance and report on their level of environmental protection to different stakeholders. Although there are many studies of environmental performance measures, they have tended to focus on those that apply to manufacturing or 'dirtier' industries. This is mainly because environmental legislation, a major driver of environmental programmes in companies, has targeted these industries. Recent legislation on packaging has focused, for the first time, on environmental impacts that are pertinent to all industry sectors alike. This has given rise to an industry-wide set of environmental performance measures for packaging and packaging waste. This 'producer responsibility' legislation has marked the turning point as more legislation is formulated at the European and national level to holistically tackle the environmental impacts of product life-cycles. Current research has concentrated on the development of performance measures for a service-orientated business that is subject to legislation concerning packaging waste, using ICL (International Computers Limited) plc. as a case study example. Particular attention has been given, in this research, to the identification of EPIs and their integration into an ISO 14Q01 certifiable environmental management system for the purposes of demonstrating continuous improvement. A risk assessment methodology is applied to demonstrate the effects of business constraints in the decision-making process regarding environmental programmes. The impacts of the UK Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 on the organisation and the necessary steps that the-company has had to take in order to comply with the legislation have been examined. From this study a compliance methodology has been developed and it has been demonstrated how an organisation can achieve compliance and conserve valuable resources for improving its environmental performance. Finally, a survey has been carried out in order to assess the impacts of the UK Packaging Regulations on the environmental performance of industry. From this study a model has been developed for the application of EPIs to guide policy makers in the formulation of environmental legislation and the implications for future producer responsibility legislation.

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The thesis is an attempt to apply the rule of law to pollution control, the aim being to discover whether one form of environmental regulation can be regarded as more constitutionally legitimate than another. The thesis begins with a detailed discussion of the rule of law. In the first chapter, I suggest that the rule of law cannot simply be 'intuitively realised', but rather that the values associated with it must be accounted for through theoretical analysis. Immanent critique is rejected as a theoretical technique in favour of Dworkin's 'constructive interpretation'. The latter approach yields the rule of law values of equity, accountability, efficiency, certainty and effectiveness. Future chapters involve the application of these values to specific modes of pollution control. In chapter two, the 'command-and-control' regulatory systems operated by HMIP, the NRA, local authorities (air pollution control and waste regulation) and water and sewerage companies are analysed in terms of rule of law values - except for accountability which is discussed separately and in much greater depth in chapters 3 to 6. In these four chapters, I begin by examining general accountability mechanisms before exploring accountability for specific decisions such as the setting of ambient standards, the setting of emission/process standards and finally, monitoring and enforcement. Having discussed command-and-control approaches to pollution control, chapter 7 proceeds to examine market mechanisms of environmental regulation in terms of the rule of law values. The values are first applied to pollution taxes and tradeable permits at an abstract level; they are then applied to the existing cost-recovery charging schemes operated by the various regulatory bodies. Finally, in chapter eight I attempt to apply the rule of law values to 'market approaches' to pollution control such as environmental management and audit, green consumerism and investment, government industry contracts and civil liability. The conclusion of the thesis then assesses the success or otherwise of the practical application of the rule of law that has been attempted in previous chapters. It considers whether one can use the rule of law as a benchmark of legitimacy to conclude that one form of pollution control is more constitutionally legitimate than another.

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