On The International Environmental Dispute Settlement Mechanism

With the rapid development of science and technology, the rigors of global environment problems give rise to more and more international environmental disputes, which are mainly caused by transboundary pollution and the governance of shared resources. International environmental disputes mainly occur among over two nation states, IGOs and individuals, transnational corporations and NGOs. The international environmental dispute settlement mechanism refers to the series of rules, principles, norms and procedures formulated or approved in express or tacit agreement by the actors of international relations. The dispute settlement mechanism of United Nations Convention on The Law of The Sea betters the traditional one in many ways while Noncompliance Procedure is a brand-new mechanism, aimed to encourage and help with the contracting party to comply with the rules of the related conventions. The swordfish case in 2000 revealed the possible conflict between the international environmental dispute settlement mechanism and the WTO DSM which deserves our attention.