Mr Magnus Jesko Langer recently defended his PhD thesis in International Studies at the Graduate Institute. The committee was presided by Professor Pierre-Marie Dupuy and included Professor Marcelo Kohen, thesis director, as well as Professor Nico Schrijver from Leiden University. Mr Langer’s thesis, “Sovereignty in Trust: Territorial Sovereignty at the Crossroads of International Environmental Law”, is notably concerned with the evolving relationship between State sovereignty and the environment.

International environmental law is no longer a marginal field of international law, used as the epitome for all the contemporary illnesses of the international law-making and law-enforcement processes. International environmental law is increasingly taking centre stage in the normative structure of international law. It uproots the traditional assumptions of liberty and laissez-faire characterising the old territorial order, by assaulting the fortress of sovereignty on the front where it hurts most, the territory of the State. Initially conceptualised as limited to trans-boundary issues, then extended to international areas under no State’s jurisdiction, international environmental law now increasingly regulates activities taking place within the territory of the State, irrespective of any direct harm to any other State.

Although the levels of regulation, the standards of protection, and the means of enforcement vary significantly from one environmental media or activity to another, a general trend is perceivable that States are under a general duty to protect and preserve their natural environment. Accordingly, environmental considerations and standards, driven by the evolving international law-making process, must be taken into consideration at all decision-making levels within the State, so as to ensure a rational and sustainable development in consonance with environmental conservation for the benefit of the State’s own population, the international community, and future generations. This new multipolar and dynamic constellation fundamentally repositions the State as a trustee over its natural environment.

Langer, Magnus Jesko. “Sovereignty in Trust: Territorial Sovereignty at the Crossroads of International Environmental Law.” PhD thesis, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, 2015.

Illustration: Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Ibrahim Didi signs a decree at an underwater cabinet meeting. 17 October 2009. Maldives Presidency/Mohamed Seeneen, CC BY_NC 2.0.