Leiden Journal of International Law

Table of Contents - 2004 - Volume 17, Issue 04  


CURRENT LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

The First MOX Plant Award: The Need to Harmonize Competing Environmental Regimes and Dispute Settlement Procedures

YUVAL SHANY  1

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shany y   [Google Scholar] 
 

Abstract

The MOX Plant award, rendered on 3 July 2003, contributes to elucidation of the right of access to environmental information under the OSPAR Convention. However, the ‘self-contained’ vision of the OSPAR Convention embraced by the majority on the panel – rejecting in effect the relevance of competing international environmental regimes and dispute settlement procedures – deserves criticism. First of all, it leads to the establishment of a more limited right of access to environmental information under the OSPAR Convention than is recognized under other arrangements. It also represents an approach which might exacerbate the fragmentation of an increasingly complex body of international law.


Key Words: arbitration; environmental law; international courts and tribunals; jurisdiction; self-contained regimes.

Footnotes

1 LLB 1995 (Hebrew University); LLM 1997 (New York University); Ph.D. 2001 (University of London); Senior Lecturer, School of Law, College of Management Academic Studies (Israel). The author thanks Iris Canor and Moshe Hirsch for their useful comments and assistance in the preparation of this note. The responsibility for errors remains mine.