The contractualization of environmental protection in international law: exploring legal and governance solutions for post-conflict reconstruction in Azerbaijan

Within the context of the thirty-year long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, numerous environmental damages have been committed by the conflicting parties and by private companies operating under their sovereignty in the formerly occupied territories of Azerbaijan. By providing an overview of the wrongful activities having caused severe harm to the natural environment of Azerbaijan and covering a period from the First to the Second Karabakh war, this paper aims to explore legal and governance solutions for the post-conflict reconstruction of the damaged areas as a means to achieve reconciliation through environmental accountability. Specifically, the ultimate objective of this paper lays in the proposal of a contractual approach to environmental protection, namely the incorporation of environmental protection clauses within contracts concluded between government agencies and foreign corporations. More precisely, the contractualization approach is intended to be applied both to corporate activities and during the reconstruction of the conflict-affected areas of Azerbaijan, especially in the field of mineral resource extraction, reconstruction of infrastructure and transportation lines and foreign investments. This legal solution would eventually overcome the drawbacks of international law in the field of corporate environmental accountability and characterize as governance approach to prevent future damage to the natural environment on the part of private companies operating in the territories of Azerbaijan. Ultimately, the successful application of the contractualization approach in Azerbaijan could spur the employment of the same approach to other regions of the world equally affected by corporate environmental damages during and after armed conflicts.