Question

Explain "State sovereignty". Explain, what practical impacts it has in environmental law and give a practical example.

Answer 1

Answer:

State sovereignty:

The term sovereignty refers to the full control exercised by the governing body over itself without the interference of any external government or entity.

A sovereign state is the one which has full authority or sovereignty over a particular geographic area by a centralised government. A sovereign state is not dependent on any other power or state. A sovereign state has their own defined territory which is ruled by a single government and they can make a relationship with other sovereign state.

A sovereign state is able to control all the activities and association of all the people residing in the territory of the state as it is the sovereign right of the government to control these people and their activities within its territory and if any person do not follow the law of the government than the government has the right to punish them.

Practical impacts sovereign state has in environmental law:

Environmental law includes the various aspects of law that is intended to protect the harm to the natural environment and the scarce resources.

State sovereignty gives a particular state the authority to control its territory and the natural resources available within that territory. Since a single government has all the exclusive power within that territory, it has been observed from a long period of time that these governments destroy and exploit the available natural resources within their territory. These governments develop their own regulations for controlling the issues related to the environment and enforce the same on the various bodies of that territory. These governments make their own standards and policies according to their own national interest.

This behaviour of the State sovereignty has impacted environment in an adverse manner resulting into trans boundary environmental problems including climate change, ozone layer depletion, loss of natural resources and biodiversity loss.

Practical example:

An example of State sovereignty is the Sri Lankan territory which is controlled by its own government. Over the years the Sri Lankan state has experienced the degradation of its natural resources; mostly being water resources. Dumping of the wastes from ships, oil spills and sand mining has resulted into the marine pollution which has resulted into water borne and vector borne diseases. Apart from exploiting the marine resources, Sri Lanka has also exploited its resources of gems, limestone and phosphates on the basis of its economic policies by the government within the state.