Lessons for the Treaty Process from the International Law Commission and International Environmental Law

The chapter examines Amnesty case studies in order to document the state practice identified and the gaps that need to be filled. The chapter will then consider the work of the ILC in its progressive codification of the law on prevention and loss allocation with respect to transboundary harm arising from hazardous activities, culminating in draft Articles8 and draft Principles,9 respectively, in 2001 and 2006. The modest claim of this chapter is that as the key United Nations body responsible for the progressive development and codification of international law, the work of the ILC should surely be of relevance to the treaty debate. Bringing together the Amnesty case studies with the work of the ILC, the chapter will consider whether in fact there are lessons for the treaty debate to be learned from this body of work.