Typical state nuisance laws in the United States mandate that a property owner cannot use his or her property in a manner that causes injury to other property owners. This typically results in local compliance regulation about noise, hours of operation, creation of creeks, and other water uses that may impact adjacent owners. This simple state law principle has been applied in a much more complicated international law area, as evidenced by the holding in:

a. The 1941 arbitration opinion award issued in the Trail Smelter dispute between the United States and Canada for transboundary pollution.

b. A series of European Court of Justice cases in the early 2000s.

c. Various ICJ decisions involving interpretation of the Stockholm Declaration.

d. The first arbitration cases under the Rio Declaration.