more attention should be paid to the substances that create pollution and that may be found in all the different areas. The latest approach to the protection of the biosphere consists thus in the international control of potentially harmful substances at the different stages of their existence: production, transport, trade, use, and elimination of chemicals and of radioactive material.10
This evolution already implies a strong tendency toward globalization: the international transportation of toxic or dangerous chemical substances or waste, the "exportation" of harmful activities to other mainly developing -countries cannot be controlled without worldwide cooperation. The situation is the same in other fields, such as the trade of drugs or the struggle against certain diseases such as AIDS. In addition, during the last decade we became aware of the existence of problems that cannot be approached without planetary cooperation and thus legislation: for example, the depletion of the ozone layer, the modification of the global climate, and the threats against the world's genetic heritage. Different factors inherent in such problems need new approaches in the legal techniques used by the international community for law-making.
One of the most striking features of the international legislation since 1945 is the enormous importance of "soft-law" instruments, for example, the texts that were adopted by states without being legally binding. Of course, the first and most evident cause for this is the expansion of the number of international bodies that have not been endowed with the power to adopt mandatory texts, but only recommendations. As a consequence, this is the only way to address their member states. However, one should not forget that originally such resolutions could only correspond to the current work and management of the concerned international body, while in reality resolutions of certain international organs, such as the UN General Assembly, play an important role in the international legislative process. This is not the place to discuss the legal nature of such resolutions and especially their binding force. At a minimum it can be asserted that they participate in the creation of new international law rules, formulating for the first time emerging social values that later on may be formally confirmed by international conventions. This was the way international law was developed in new fields such as the international protection of human rights, or the status of outer space. For environmental protection, the evolution is less lineal, but texts such as the 1972 Stockholm Declaration11 or the World Charter for Nature, adopted and solemnly proclaimed by the UN General Assembly on 28 October 1982,12 certainly have paved the way for formal legislative activities.
Soft-law instruments can also play a more technical role. "Resolutions," "conclusions," and "guidelines," may include technical details that are to be evaluated by states and may be included, at the end of the day, either in a formal international treaty13 or introduced in national legislation.14 This can be explained by the newness of the solutions suggested by the international bodies - understanding that such newness is mostly imposed by a new situation that has to be coped with.
Soft-law rules can also be included in formally binding international instruments, i.e. treaty provisions. As a matter of fact, quite often such provisions contain nothing more than strong recommendations for the contracting parties. Without speaking of clauses such as "each State Party to this convention shall endeavor, in so far as possible, and as appropriate for each country..."15 which can hardly be con sidered as imposing strict obligations upon states, the content of the treaty itself may be, in reality, nothing more than a declaration of intention. A good example for this is the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.16 The contracting parties "are determined to protect man and his environment against air pollution and shall endeavor to limit and, as far a