African Courts and Principles of International Environmental Law: A Kenyan and South African Case Study

Abstract

Scholarship increasingly reveals the distinct interplay between international environmental law and domestic legal systems, and the important role of courts the world over in fleshing out this relationship. Africa, however, seems to be underrepresented in these discussions, despite its being a key stakeholder in the development of international environmental law. As a contribution to this debate, we offer here an analysis of the relationship between international environmental law and domestic African legal systems, by focusing on how domestic courts in Kenya and South Africa have been engaging with the precautionary principle, the principle of public participation and the principle of sustainable development. Our analysis of a range of judgments shows that these courts have been exceptionally innovative in their growing support of these principles that they seem to embrace in their efforts to strengthen domestic environmental protection and to contribute to a nascent transnational judicial dialogue.