Danilo Türk Book Presentation

Chapter six is devoted to the issues of international responsibility of states. It is divided into two sections.The first addresses the issues of responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts – as developed in the recent evolution of international law. Special attention is placed on the draft articles produced by the International Law Commission in 2001. Particular attention is paid to the interrelationship between the primary obligation and its breach and the resulting responsibility of the wrong-doing state. The draft articles offer a sophisticated answer to the issue of responsibility of states for wrongful acts.The quasi-objective (i.e.“strict”) responsibility of the wrongdoing state is nuanced depending on the nature of the primary obligation and the nature of the breach.The first section of chapter six also discusses issues such as attribut ability, circumstances precluding wrongfulness and reparation for injury. Thesecondsectionof chapter sixaddresses specific featuresof theresponsibility of states in the area of the protection of environment.The discussion proceeds from the ordinary concept of international respon-sibility of states and from the principle sic utere tuo ut alterum non laedes. From there the discussion continues to specific primary obligations of states in the area of protection of environment suchas the dutyof notificationof activities affecting environment, the obligation of prior consultations, the duty to provide environmental impact assessment and the principle “polluter pays”.These obligations have developed internatio-nal law beyond the general rules of responsibility of states for the actual damage to the environment. Furthermore, they have to be seen in conjunction with the innovative arrangements in the institution- building for a more effective protection of environment. Taken together these elements represent an evolving international regime which is firmly based in the concept of responsibility of states while its normative structure is reaching into new forms of cooperation by states. This evolution is driven by the realization of states that they have a collective responsibility for the protection of environment and it thus represents an important comple- ment to the traditional international regime of state responsibility. Chapter seven addresses international organizations. It starts with a brief historical overview and an explanation of the main types of international organizations existing at present. A large part of the chapter is devoted

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