Responsibility of Nation states and third world Countries towards environment in the age of globalization

Author – Rachit Sharma, Faculty Associate (Law), IILM University

Best Citation – Rachit Sharma, Responsibility of Nation states and third world Countries towards environment in the age of globalization, INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL RESEARCH JOURNAL, 1 (1) of 2023, Pg. 71, ISBN (P) – 978-81-960702-1-2.

ABSTRACT

Today, the world has become close knit family as trades are happening globally between countries from different corners of the world which has led to a revolution called Globalization, which enables states to trade with any state around the world with ease. But with increasing Globalization, the nation states have forgotten about the most important thing in the world i.e., ‘The Environment’.

Many Multi National Companies (Hereinafter referred to as MNCs) are degrading the environment by providing cheap and lucrative products which are harmful for the environment or by directly using production processes which directly hampers the environment. Moreover, the fact that such activities are taking place at such large scale, makes it more gruesome issue. The Most vulnerable state with this is Under Developed or Developing Countries which have low Gross Domestic Product (Hereinafter referred to as GDP) and more vulnerable to the harmful effects on the environment. Not only this, the International Court of Justice has also encountered and settled various matters between nations states and have always tried to resolve the issue and stop degradation of environment by imposing heavy sanctions and fines on the wrongdoer. But the fact that such incidents are still happening, points towards the failure of International Court of Justice as a Dispute Resolution Body

The Issue of globalization affecting the environment is however, not very new as many Authors have talked about Globalization, its adverse effects on Environment, Liability of the state degrading the environment, its impact on third world countries etc. the authors have given different reasons as to why such problems are occurring. While some reasons are true and backed by factual data, while others are clearly observations of the author which need not be completely true.

This Paper talks about ‘Responsibility of Nation states and third world Countries towards environment in the age of globalization’ with the help of four articles by eminent authors from around the world along with the Four Decisions of International Court of Justice. The Articles and Judgments referred in the article are critically examined to clearly understand the issue in hand.

Keywords: Globalization, Environment, Nation States, Third World Countries, MNCs