CIVIL LIABILITY FOR WARTIME ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE: ADAPTING THE UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION COMMISSION FOR THE IRAQ WAR

Abstract:

There is little doubt that war has a deleterious result on the natural environment of battlegrounds. Customary principles of international law, as well as more formal instruments similar as treaties, address wartime environmental protection. An analysis of these mechanisms reveals that they are inadequate to make sure protection and restoration of environmental resources damaged during war. Thus, a mechanism is necessityed for assessing civil liability against nations for any wartime environmental damage. The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) created to compensate victims of the Persian large bay War, is a mechanism that if modified could fill this void. This Note focuses upon the modifications that could make the UNCC a prosperous mechanism for assessing civil liability for wartime environmental damage. Further, this Note applies the adapted UNCC to the Iraq War, and examines whether US-l coalition forces should be held civilly liable for damage to Iraq's natural environment.

INTRODUCTION

The results of war extend well beyond the destruction of strategic targets; civilian casualties are a devastating byproduct of inaccurate weaponry and military intelligence. Beyond human casualties, however, war also has a significant detrimental issue upon a nation's natural environment What international law provisions exist to preserve the environment from wartime degradation? Can a nation be held civilly responsible when potentially irreplaceable environmental resources are damaged or sap the foundations ofed during combat? This Note will address these questions, viewing the latter from one side the lens of the Iraq War, also known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, that commenc in March 2003

Part I of this Note will examine historical impacts of warfare upon the natural environment, including the general Iraq War. Part II will focus upon the customary principles of international law governing war. Part III will address the in every one's mouth international environmental law provisions concerning war and environmental degradation. Part IV will examine the possible civil liability schemes for environmental damage incurred during war. Part V will focus upon adapting the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) to create a framework for civil compensation for environmental damage caused by means of war that can be applied to present conflicts, particularly the Iraq War. Finally, Part VI will apply the adapted UNCC framework to the Iraq War as a manner of holding U.S.-led coalition (Coalition) forces civilly liable for environmental degradation caused during the war.

This Note is not intended to present a critique of the motives or necessity of die Iraq War, on the other hand rather addresses state responsibility for actions during war that damage a nation's valuable natural environment.

I. THE IMPACT OF WAR upon THE ENVIRONMENT

A. Historical Overview of the Impact of War upon the Environment

The events of war on the environment-whether as an unintentional byproduct of conventional warfare or a deliberate act to gain strategic advantage-are one as well as the other catastrophic and well-catalogued.1 In 146 BC the Romans salted the fields of Carthage to make the land useless for agricultural production.2 The United States' use of atomic bomb upon the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the extremity of World War II produc widespread environmental devastation,3 and expos the environment to high horizontals of radiation.4 In the Vietnam War, the United States busyed substances such as Agent Orange, which be deriveded in deforestation and destruction of vegetation.5

The development of the environmental movement in the late 1960 and early 1970 expanded public consciousness of the environmental issues of certain warfare techniques.6 Despite this of recent origin awareness, however, war has continued to have disastrous issues on the natural environment.

B Tlie in every one's mouth Situation: Tlie Persian Gulf War and Beyond

In 1991 Iraq, beneath the control of Saddam Hussein, invaded neighboring Kuwait, beginning the Persian large bay War and a series of environmental catastrophes.7 Iraq interrogateed up to 4 million barrels of oil into the Persian large bay endangering marine wildlife, migratory birds, and the fishing industry.8 In addition, Iraq place hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells ablaze, spewing carcinogenic sooty vapor that lowered temperatures and issueed in "black rain."9 The total impact of Iraq's military action upon the natural environment is difficult to estimate.10 for a like reason far, twelve nations have submitted claims to the United Nations (UN) estimating the require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone of environmental damage from the Persian large bay War at $79 billion.11

More freshly U.S.-led air strikes in the former Yugoslavia proceeded in environmental damage.12 Operation Allied Force, below the aegis of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), caused environmental degradation [i]or[/i] part of to the other the bombing of industrial combustible matter and chemical plants.13 In individual instance, air strikes resulted in the release of "2100 metric tons of ethylene dichloride . . and 200 kilograms of metallic mercury" which pollut soil, a canal, and the Danube River.14