Court and tribunal rulings on environmental disputes. Exploring a concept structural approach to dispute settlement beyond the nation state

Compliance with legal requirements takes place against the background of various structural, procedural, and context conditions regarding different levels of governance. While legal frameworks at the national level are usually dense, European Union directives imply their own unique compliance setting. Court rulings both domestically and in the EU are backed up by a central authority and integrated legal systems. Internationally, the absence of such characteristics, but also the sovereignty of contractual partners and the difficulty of effectively sanctioning infringements add further complexity to the adherence to arrangements and legal obligations. These ambivalences are highly relevant in the area of environmental disputes. For one, certain environmental issues are tied to the high politics of climate change at all levels of governance. For another, while environmental courts and tribunals (ECTs) have proliferated worldwide at the regional and national levels, this does not translate to supra- or international contexts, where no comprehensive-jurisdiction ECTs exist. These constraints are of particular relevance compared to areas of stronger regulation and legalization. Therefore, litigation in this field is constrained to a few areas: first, all-purpose institutions such as the International Court of Justice; second, environment-related contexts, particularly regarding the Law of the Sea; finally, courts and tribunals in areas where environmental issues play an increasing role, especially in trade and investment as well as human rights. This complex situation raises fundamental questions about how to conceptualize the adherence to rulings on environmental issues that are made in supranational and international courts and tribunals not inherently designed as ECTs. To approach this challenge, it is essential to discuss the legitimacy of the current situation vis-à-vis arguing for the establishment for an ECT beyond the nation state. I subsequently develop a concept structural approach to environmental compliance, which aims to set out conceptual requirements for ECTs beyond the nation state. First, existing research regarding environmental courts and tribunals as well as the state of compliance will be discussed. Second, a concept structure will be developed to conceptualize compliance with rulings on environmental issues in the absence of comprehensive-jurisdiction ECTs. Finally, and based on the scholarly debate on an international ECT, questions of legitimacy relating to compliance with legal decisions in the current situation will be discussed and compared to the argument for establishing a comprehensive-jurisdiction ECT beyond the nation state.