Can the Right to A Healthy Environment Remedy the Chronic TSD Enforcement Problem? Enforcing Trade and Sustainable Development Chapters of EU Free Trade Agreements through the Essential Elements Clauses

The acceptance of a human right to a healthy environment can be a way to remedy these drawbacks of enforcement of these chapters by enabling the use of the essential elements clauses (EECs) in the event of a breaches. The EECs are a standard part of FTAs or the framework agreements that the FTAs fall under and appear in slightly different forms. They generally state that respect for human rights, democratic principles and rule of law constitute an essential element of the agreement, violation of which will constitute a material breach of the agreement under Article 60 of 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Therefore, the EECs bring a human rights conditionality to the FTAs and in the event of such a breach, they allow the suspension of the agreement or adoption of other appropriate measures. This post briefly explores this option and analyses the implications of such an enforcement of the TSD chapters through the EEC.