Environmental Law: The Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste

Over the past few decades, environmental law has been a vital subject due to a variety of environmental challenges that the world faces. The aim of this thesis is to provide an analysis of international environmental law with a focus on the issue of hazardous waste, its transboundary movement, and the implications for developing countries. The focus of this thesis is this specific human activity after hearing and learning about it during the participation in the 2023 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (hereinafter ‘Jessup’). The “Case Concerning the Clarent Belt” had as one of the four claims the issue of transboundary movement of hazardous waste between a developed country and a developing one. After participating in the Jessup, and researching, learning all about it and dealing personally with this matter, the topic was considered worth of deepening within a thesis. The thesis is structured starting from defining international environmental law, its development and the main legal aspects of it including the main actors involved, sources and the main environmental challenges that have led to the acknowledgment of the importance to protect the environment at the international level and the further expansion of this area. Among these challenges one of the topics of discussion and debate is the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, in particular when the movement occurs between a developed country and a developing one. What it was concluded after researching this topic is that the international community is still divided on how to deal with the matter: some State believe that it is better to regulate the matter, some – especially developing countries – prefer the complete ban of transboundary movement of hazardous waste.