Title: Reimagining International Environmental Law
Authors: Anxhela Mile, Railla Puno, and Alexandra Horn
Journal: Environmental Law (Vol. 55, No. 4)
Publication Date: 18 March 2025

The piecemeal creation and formation of international environmental law (IEL) dates to the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm and continues today. In 2018, the UN Secretary-General recognized that there is “[n]o single overarching normative framework that sets out what might be characterized as the rules and principles of general application in [IEL],” and further identified existing gaps in IEL that hinder its implementation. This Article builds upon the Secretary-General’s report, canvasses where IEL currently stands, and elaborates on crucial ways IEL can be reimagined in the future. Pathways by which IEL can be enforced and strengthened with regard to future issues such as space law and geoengineering are explored. The Article also discusses the growing focus on human rights in the IEL context, as well as how IEL reaches beyond national jurisdictions on issues concerning plastic pollution and biodiversity. It is imperative that IEL develop a more holistic, integrated approach centered on sustainable development in order to meet the increasing challenges brought by the triple planetary crisis. https://law.lclark.edu/law_reviews/environmental_law/