Der Wert der Natur im Völkerrecht

What value does international law assign to nature and the latter's destruction? And can this legal and ethical position be traced in international judicial decisions? The paper addresses these questions, first, by analyzing several economical calculation methods applied within international environmental law to calculate compensation in cases of damage to nature. Second, the paper tests the ethical position against the ethical premisses employed by the International Court of Justice when assessing the value of damages to nature. Against this background, it is argued that all economic calculation methods carry ethical assumptions that determine what aspects of nature can be considered valuable and how this value should be determined. Ultimately, the analysis demonstrates that the value attributed to nature by international law in general does not align with the premises underlying the ICJ's calculation methods as exemplified by its 2018 Certain Activities Carried Out by Nicaragua in the Border Area (Costa Rica vs Nicaragua) judgment.