Panos Merkouris

Research Handbook on International Environmental Law

This wide-ranging and comprehensive Handbook examines recent developments in international environmental law (IEL) and the crossover effects of this expansion on other areas of international law, such as trade law and the law of the sea. The expert contributors offer analyses of foundational issues in IEL, such as responsibility for environmental damage, sustainable development and the precautionary principle, alongside studies in topical subject areas including marine protection and the law of international watercourses. This Research Handbook offers an in-depth analysis of IEL, both as a field of law in its own right, and as part of the wider system of international law. It gives a comprehensive view of IEL in all its forms and complexity. With thorough examination of specific environmental regimes and compliance mechanisms, this handbook will be an indispensable resource for legal scholars, students and practitioners alike.

Article 31(3)(c) VCLT and the Principle of Systemic Integration

In Article 31(3)(c) VCLT and the Principle of Systemic Integration the author offers a detailed analysis of and innovative solutions to all the problems relating to Article 31(3)(c) VCLT and its application by international courts when interpreting treaty provisions.

The Interpretation and Application of the European Convention of Human Rights

The Interpretation and Application of the European Convention of Human Rights: Legal and Practical Implications, offers an analysis of important legal issues pertaining not only to the ECHR itself but also to the effect that it has on and also receives from other areas of international law

(Inter)Temporal Considerations in the Interpretative Process of the VCLT: Do Treaties Endure, Perdure or Exdure?

When interpreted, sometimes treaties have to go through a trial by fire and are found either to be ‘living instruments’ evolving alongside the relevant changes both in law and in facts or to have a ‘fixed’ meaning. The aim of the present article is to examine how intertemporal considerations find their way into the interpretative process and what the effects are on the treaties being interpreted. Do these changes in law and fact actually change the treaty itself, or do they merely trigger a latent quality already existing in the treaty itself? Does time change the treaty, or does it merely ‘unfold’ it? This question will be examined through the lens of the main philosophical theories on identity, persistence, time and change (endurantism, perdurantism and exdurantism), and by focusing on the ‘direct’ (principle of contemporaneity and evolutive interpretation) and ‘indirect’ (Article 31(3)(c) and the intertemporal application of the rules of interpretation) points of entry of intertemporal considerations in the interpretative process. Through this examination the elements that weigh upon the judicial interpretative process and tip the scales either in favour of an evolutive interpretation or in favour of the principle of contemporaneity, will be identified, as well as the limits of any such interpretation. In this manner, an answer will be arrived at as to whether, from an interpretative perspective, treaties endure, perdure or exdure.

Uniformity Versus Specialization (1): The Quest for a Uniform Law of Inter-State Treaties

The recent proliferation of international courts and tribunals, accompanied by the expansion of areas regulated by international law with ever increasing density, has led to an equally increasing fear of fragmentation both at an institutional and at a normative level. The present chapter examines whether the VCLT rules or their customary law equivalents provide the actors in the international arena with a uniform set of rules, or whether practice has demonstrated that they are only a ‘springboard’ allowing the States flexibility to adopt more tailor-made solutions. In order to avoid any overlaps with other contributions in the present Handbook, the analysis will focus on three main areas of the law of treaties: i) the provisions relating to the creation of conventional obligations, ie what is a treaty, ii) the issues relating to consent to be bound and iii) the provisions relating to amendment of treaties. These areas refer, on the one hand, to the emergence of a binding treaty and, on the other, to its continued, albeit somewhat transformed, existence. In this manner a complete overview of the genesis and life of a treaty can be given and certain conclusions can be reached as to the existence or not of a characteristic of uniformity of the relevant provisions amongst inter-State treaties.

List Of Cases

> Appeals filed in 2010 and 2011. > Appellate body Report, us-shrimp, Para.92.7 > Appellate Body Report [on US Hot-Rolled Steel], Paras. 84-85. > Appellate Body Report on Brazil Desiccated Coconut, p. 21, case;WT/DS22/AB/R,DSR 1997. > Appellate Body Report on EC Hormones, Para. 133. > Appellate Body Report on EC Hormones, Para. 148. > Appellate Body Report on EC Hormones, Para. 148. > Appellate Body Report on EC Sardines, Para. 138-139. Appellate Body Report on US -Software Lumber VI, Para.6. > Appellate Body Report on EC Sardines, Paras, 137-138,140-141, 145-147 and 149-150. > Appellate Body Report on EC Sardines, Pare. 141. > Appellate Body Report on India Patents (US), Para. 94. > Appellate Body Report on India Patents (US), Para. 94. > Appellate Body Report on US Certain EC Products, Para. 81. See also Para. 129. > Appellate Body Report on US Corrosion-Resistant Steet Sunset Review, Para. 81. > Appellate Body Report on US Cotton Yam, Para. 74. > Appellate Body Report on US Countervailing Measures on Certain EC Products, Para. 62. > Appellate Body Report on US Offset Act (Byrd Amendment), Para. 200. > Appellate Body Report on US Offset Act (Byrd Amendment), Paras. 206 -208. > Appellate Body Report on US Shrimp (Article 21.5 -Malaysia), Para. 11. > Appellate Body Report on US Shrimp, Para. 95. > Appellate Body Report on US Shrimp, Paras. 104 and 106. > Appellate Body Report, EC Hormones, Para. 135.