• What is environmental law?
• Principles of environmental law
• Sources of environmental law
• Importance of environmental law
• International environmental law
• Environmental law in Mexico

We explain what environmental law is, its principles and sources. In addition, international environmental law and in Mexico.

Environmental law creates norms that preserve the environment.

What is environmental law?

Environmental law or law of the nature is the branch of public Law that studies the relationships between Humans and nature, in order to create and understand the legal norms that preserve and protect the environment of harmful activities as a consequence of industrial and human activity.

In simpler terms, it is a branch of law which is in charge of the ecological regulation of human activities, with the task of promoting a model of civilization that does not threaten the continuity of the existence of the life at planet, nor does it drastically and irreversibly impoverish it.

It is a very recent branch of law, which has a notorious multidisciplinary character, since it involves the expertise of professionals from many different fields, such as the biology, medicine, ecology, the physical, the chemistry, etc. It requires a constant update of its perspectives, due to the fast changes current scientific-technological.

Environmental law emerged as an independent discipline in 1972, at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm.

Before reaching that decision, during the twentieth century the impact harmful that industrial activity can have on the environment, affecting both the human species and many others. This was demonstrated after the tragedies of Bophal, Seveso or Chernobyl, for example.

Principles of environmental law

Environmental law pursues the following fundamental objectives:

• Avoid pollution of the environment as much as possible, as well as harmful interventions on the part of the human being.
• Have the rules and measures that punish the crime environmental and promote culture respectful towards life and ecosystem.
• Take the decisions appropriate to deal in the best possible way with the contamination already present in numerous ecosystems, or with the damages already caused by industrial activity.
• Debate about the most appropriate position on the matter should be taken by the state, to orchestrate world development in a sustainable and ecological.

Sources of environmental law

Environmental law understands how its sources to:

• The National Constitution and the jurisprudence. That is to say, the positive set of norms that regulate in a nation given the ecological and environmental issue, as well as the rules and decisions issued by the competent legal authorities.
• The professional doctrine on the matter. In other words, the knowledge and scientific content that specialists in the field offer regarding environmental conservation.
• International treaties. Signed by the nation in question, which establishes, together with other countries, a set of standards and objectives ecological issues to be achieved, since environmental damage is not, in the long run, focused, but rather affects the entire planet.

Importance of environmental law

Environmental law can encourage the exploitation of inexhaustible resources.

Today each nation in the world has in its constitution some type of regulation and foundations of environmental law, which also serve when collaborating with international organizations for the defense of the environment.

In this way, countries have the ability to legally control the way in which they explode their natural resources, and protect the biodiversity, that precious asset of our planet that every day seems to diminish a little more.

International environmental law

Environmental law is increasingly emerging as a necessity not only local, but also regional and international, as the effects of irresponsible industrialization cause damage to the environment that affect the entire globe, since ecosystems are all interconnected.

For this reason, organizations for the legal defense of the environment with international jurisdiction have emerged, such as the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which acts as an authorized defender of the environment in all cases in which there is legal litigation, and also as a promoter of environmental law in each of the countries that make up the UN.

Environmental law in Mexico

Since the Constituent Assembly of 1917, the legal defense of the environment in Mexico has been an important factor. For this, the issue of natural resources was incorporated into article 27 of the Constitution, which enshrined the principle of the social function of property.

In addition, in 1987 the reform of article 73 achieved that environmental matters are not regulated as mere matters of public health, issuing the Federal Law to Prevent and Control Environmental Pollution. Thus, greater punitive weight was given to the Federal Environmental Protection Law. The environmental issue is of particular interest in Mexico.