The prevention principle, recognised as the cornerstone of international environmental law (IEL), was consecrated by principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment that reasserts the sovereignty of States over their natural resources while creating an obligation not to cause damage to the environment of other States or to areas beyond national jurisdiction. This presentation investigates whether the prevention principle has moved beyond the focus on transboundary harm and the global commons to create an international obligation for States to protect the environment on their own domestic territory. The structure of contemporary IEL hints at the existence of an international moral duty that compounds States to work towards the protection of their domestic environment. Whereas a legal obligation is yet to emerge, States are endowed with a sovereign responsibility to protect their own environment – hence reconciling the two apparently contradicting concepts that are sovereignty and environmental protection.
