International and European Governance of Environmental Conflicts: Comparing Implementation Across Resolution Mechanism

In this paper, I compare the differentiated implementation of decisions on environmental conflicts across so called ‘resolution mechanisms’, i.e., judgements from international and European courts and managerial decisions from non-compliance mechanisms in multilateral environmental agreements. I start from the observation that the protection of Earth’s environment is a global undertaking not confined to the borders of nation states, and therefore directly affects international and European governance. Against the background of a growing intensity regarding environmental and climate protests and action, implementing legal obligations is crucial to protect the environment. At the same time, such dynamics affect different types of territorial spaces, especially the physical, social, and economic territories. The resulting puzzle that implementation occurs despite resting on different resolution mechanisms is investigated by making use of existing research on (differentiated) policy implementation in the European Union (EU) to assess the underlying explanatory conditions. I address the following research question: How can the effective national implementation of decisions on environmental conflicts be understood across different resolution mechanisms? To answer this question, I outline a concept structural framework, which reflects the existing management and enforcement approaches from the implementation literature and follows a conjunctural logic with two explanations: one based on the legitimacy of relevant institutions and processes of conflict resolution given positive actor preferences towards a decision (management); and another relating to the institutional mechanisms used to solve conflicts given negative actor preferences (enforcement). While social backlash and environmental action might concern questions of legitimacy, legal enforcement of environmental obligations could more directly relate to physical and economic territory. I apply this conceptual framework by tracing and comparing selected implementation processes in EU member states relating to hazardous waste and chemicals (drawn from judgements by the Court of Justice of the EU and Basel/Rotterdam Conventions); water resource management (International Court of Justice and Water Convention and the Protocol on Water and Health); and protection of the marine environment (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and Regional Fishery Management Organisations). The paper advances research on environmental conflicts by integrating conditions of implementation across different institutional approaches to conflict resolution, thus providing new insights about an underexplored aspect of international and European governance.