The International Court of Justice and the environment

Abstract

This essay illustrates the Court's jurisprudence in environmental matters based on selected cases and including the two Nuclear Tests cases, the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion and the Gabcikovo Nagymars case. The selected cases prove the changing and evolving attitudes of the Court and its judges towards the importance of the environment and secondly, they show how the Court deals with certain contemporary environmental principles and concepts, such as the precautionary principle, environment impact assessment, and intergenerational equity.