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Dr. P. S. Rao

Dr. P. S. Rao
Special Adviser
Attorney-General Office
State of Qatar
Former Member
International Law Commission

Biography Biography in PDF

Environmental Law
Cooperation
Prevention of Transboundary Harm Arising from Hazardous Activities
This lecture considers the duties of prevention of transboundary harm from hazardous activities as enunciated by the International Law Commission in its final draft articles adopted in 2001. It highlights the obligations of due diligence, prior authorization, notification of risk of transboundary harm, consultations, and monitoring. Particular focus is given to the precautionary principle.

Video | Audio
(26/8/2011, 59 minutes)

International Liability for Transboundary Harm Arising from Hazardous Activities: Principles on Allocation of Loss
This lecture explores the idea of allocation of loss in the context of international liability for transboundary harm arising from hazardous activities. The lecture is centred on the draft principles of allocation of loss adopted by the International Law Commission in 2006. The issues dealt with include notification, remedies, responsibility of private operators, and implementation of compensation schemes.

Video | Audio
(26/8/2011, 60 mins)
Environmental Law
Cooperation
Prevention of Transboundary Harm Arising from Hazardous Activities
A. Legal Instruments

Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice, San Francisco, 26 June 1945.

Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 16 June 1972.

Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, Geneva, 13 November 1979, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1302, p.217.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Montego Bay, 10 December 1982, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1833, p.3.

Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Espoo, Finland, 25 February 1991, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1989, p. 309.

Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, Helsinki, 17 March 1992, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1936, p.269.

Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, Vienna, 22 March 1985, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1513, p. 293.

Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, Vienna, 26 September 1986, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1439, p. 276.

Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa, Bamako, 30 January 1991, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2101, p. 177.

Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents, Helsinki, 17 March 1992, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2105, p.457.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, New York, 9 May 1992, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1771, p. 107.  

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 14 June 1992.

Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, New York, 21 May 1997.

Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, 30 March 2010.
B. Jurisprudence

Permanent Court of International Justice, The Case of the S.S. “Lotus”, Judgment No.9, 1927, Series A, No 10, p. 5.

International Court of Justice, Corfu Channel case, Judgment of 9 April 1949, I.C.J. Reports 1949, p. 4.

International Court of Justice, North Sea Continental Shelf, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1969, p. 3.

International Court of Justice, Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1996, p. 226.

International Court of Justice, Gabčikovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary/Slovakia), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1997, p. 7.

International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, The Mox Plant Case (Ireland v. United Kingdom), Case No. 10, Order of 3 December 2001.

International Court of Justice, Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2010, p. 14.

International Court of Justice, Aerial Herbicide Spraying (Ecuador v. Colombia), Order of 13 September 2013, I.C.J. Reports 2013, p. 278.

International Court of Justice, Case Concerning Certain Questions of Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (Djibouti v. France), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2008, p. 177.
C. Documents

General Assembly resolution 2995 (XXVII) of 15 December 1972 (Co-operation between States in the field of the environment).

United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (“Brundtland Report”), 1987.

Resolution on Responsibility and Liability under International Law for Environmental Damage, Annuaire de l’Institut de Droit International, vol. 67 (2), 1998, p. 486.

Ministerial Declaration of the Fifth International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea, Bergen, 20-21 March 2002.



International Liability for Transboundary Harm Arising from Hazardous Activities: Principles on Allocation of Loss
A. Legal Instruments

Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, Paris, 16 November 1972.

Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, Helsinki, 22 March 1974, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1507, p.166.

India, Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act, No. 21 of 1985, 28 March 1985.

United States, Oil Pollution Act (1990), 33 U.S.C. §2701.

Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents, Helsinki, 17 March 1992, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2105, p. 457.

Protocol on Civil Liability and Compensation for Damage Caused by the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents on Transboundary Waters to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of  Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes and to the 1992 Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents, Kiev, 21 May 2003.

Convention on Civil Liability for Damage Resulting from Activities Dangerous to the Environment, Lugano, 21 June 1993.

Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, New York, 21 May 1997.

Protocol to amend the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, Vienna, 12 September 1997, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2241, p. 270.

International Law Commission, Draft Articles on Prevention of Transboundary Harm from Hazardous Activities with Commentaries, 2001.

Directive 2004/35/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage.


B. Jurisprudence

Supreme Court of India, M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, AIR 1987 SC 965.

Supreme Court of India, Union Carbide Corporation v. Union of India, AIR 1990 SC 273.

Supreme Court of India, Vellore Citizens’ Welfare Forum v. Union of India (1996) 5 SCC 647.

C. Documents

Fourth report on International liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law by Robert Q. Quentin-Baxter, Special Rapporteur (A/CN.4/373, reproduced in Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1983, vol. II (1), p. 201).

Fifth report on International liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law by Robert Q. Quentin-Baxter, Special Rapporteur (A/CN.4/383, reproduced in Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1984, vol. II (1), p. 155).

Second Report on State responsibility by Mr. J. Crawford, Special Rapporteur (A/CN.4/498, reproduced in Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1970, vol. II, p. 178).

Common Position (EC) No. 58/2003 adopted by the Council on 18 September 2003 with a view to the adoption of a Directive 2003/…/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of… on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage (2003/C 277 E/02).

Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its fifty-eighth session, 1 May – 9 June and 3 July – 11 August 2006, General Assembly, Official Records, Supplement No. 10 (A/61/10), pp. 110 and 113.


D. Doctrine

D.K. Anton and D.L. Shelton, Environmental Protection and Human Rights, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

P. Birnie, A. Boyle and C. Redgwell, International Law and the Environment, 3rd edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009.

I. Brownlie, System of the Law of Nations: State Responsibility, Part I, Oxford University Press, 1983, p. 50.

A. Harding (ed.), Access to Environmental Justice: A Comparative Study, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden/Boston, 2007.

D.B. Magraw, “Transboundary Harm: The International Law Commission's Study of International Liability”, American Journal of International Law, vol. 80, 1986, pp. 305–320.

E. Margolis, “The Hydrogen Bomb Experiments and International law”, Yale Law Journal, vol. 64, 1955, p. 629.

M. McDougal/N. Schlei, “The Hydrogen Bomb Tests in Perspective: Lawful Measures for Security”, Yale Law Journal, vol. 64, 1955, p. 648.

P. Sands, Principles of Environmental Law, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 887.

C. Voigt, “State Responsibility for Climate Change Damages”, Nordic Journal of International Law, vol.7 (2008), pp. 1-22.