Page 40 [40]
OCR
ECOCIDE universalist theory now also takes account of specific global interests of the international community, under which states are subject to rules to which they have not necessarily contributed. Among the global interests that justify the universalist theory is the protection of the environment, which explicitly requires action by the international community.” In public international law, there is no hierarchy of sources of law in a classical sense and as a result, international treaties and customary law can be considered as equivalent sources of law. The lack of hierarchy is broken only by ius cogens norms" which must be respected by all States and can be changed only by rules of international law which are accepted as such: “/...] a peremptory norm of general international law is a norm accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character”. There is also a growing debate concerning the right to a healthy environment, whether it can be considered as ius cogens norm based on its embeddedness in national constitutions and international legal instruments.” The catalogue of sources of IEL corresponds with the generally accepted sources of public international law.’”' However, in IEL, the sources of law have different emphases and significance in comparison to other legislative areas of public international law. Firstly, the principles §7 "Kende, Tamás — Nagy, Boldizsár — Sonnevend, Päl - Valki, Läszlö (Eds.): Nemzetközi jog [International law]. Wolters Kluwer Hungary, Second edition, Budapest, 2018, p. 145. Ius cogens norms are peremptory norms of general international law and based on the Draft Conclusions on Identification and Legal Consequences of Peremptory Norms of General International Law of the International Law Commission, the non-exhaustive list of these norms is the following: the prohibition of aggression; the prohibition of genocide; the prohibition of crimes against humanity; the basic rules of international humanitarian law; the prohibition of racial discrimination and apartheid; the prohibition of slavery; the prohibition of torture; the right of self-determination. ® Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969 (1980) UNTS Vol. 1155. p. 331. Article 53. 7 See Kotzé, Louis J.: In Search of a Right to a Healthy Environment in International Law Ius Cogens Norms. In: Knox, John H. — Pejan, Ramin (Eds.): The Human Right to a Healthy Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. pp. 136-154. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108367530. 7 Tn general, Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice is referred to as the list of sources of public international law. These sources are international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognised by the contesting states, international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law, and the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations. Furthermore, the judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations are subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law. 68 38
