TRANSNATIONAL STATE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HARMS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

International environmental law challenges many fundamental concepts of traditional international law. It puts limits on State Sovereignty, intrudes into the domestic jurisdiction and territorial integrity of States, creates greater responsibilities for States, and involves many non-state entities in the process of international law. The sheer scale of the environmental issues' means that national action by itself, while important, is insufficient’, and that significant international cooperation is required. The international legal system offers considerable benefits to a State, from conferring recognition of its sovereignty to protecting its territorial integrity. Accordingly, as part of a State’s consent to the operation of that system, it must accept corresponding legal obligations. Primarily, it must accept responsibility for its actions, which have an effect on other international legal persons and the international community at large. As stated by Judge Huber in the Spanish Zone of Morocco Claims Case:- ‘responsibility is the necessary corollary of a right. All rights of an international character involve international responsibility.