Development of international environmental law in the light of International judicial judgements and precedents

The International Court of Justice and other international judicial and arbitral bodies play an important role through the issuance of international judicial judgements and precedents in the development of public international law, including international environmental law. These judgements and precedents, as well as some other cases of the International Court of Justice, will help to include new legal principles and rules of international law which can develop the environmental protection. However, alongside the legal capacity, there are obstacles and limitations which cause the positive development of international environmental law move slowly. Advisory opinions and Judgements issued by international courts show that State sovereignty has always been an obstacle to the development of international environmental law. Moreover, the traditional approach of International court of justice, based on the preference of the State sovereignty, is a significant challenge for developing the international environmental law. In fact, moving from absolute sovereignty to the rule based on rational and reasonable use of land could be a good opportunity for development of this legal field. For the first time, the concept of environmental protection was introduced in many cases such as the Trail Smelter case as an earlier environmental dispute and in this way environmental protection was developed in other environmental legal cases too. This research, attempts to analyze the international judicial judgements and precedents of the International Court of Justice to find the impact of these judgements and precedents in the development of international environmental law. It also provides guidelines for applicable solutions by identifying legal gaps and existing inefficiencies.