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Law does not stand alone. It depend on the functioning of many things. Experience from the past 15 years of development has taught us that there is a danger that bureaucracy with all its strength coming from the West, in Indonesia's case because of the oil and gas revenues, will strangle the community with so many laws. They have, for instance, laws that ask every gathering of five or moze people to have permission from the police. Sometimes I feel that maybe the best government is the one who governs the least. In this case, I feel that sometimes the Asian countries learn from each other.

Adi Sasono
Institute for Development Studies'
WCED Public Hearing
Jakarta, 26 March 1985

• reviewing and revising those relevant conventions that need to be brought in line with the latest available technical and scientific information: and
• negotiating new global and regional conventions or arrangements aimed at promoting cooperation and coordination in the field of environment and development (including, for example, new conventions and agreements on climate change, on hazardous chemicals and wastes, and on preserving biological diversity).

88. It is recommended that the UNEP s,cretariat, in close cooperation with the IUCN Environmental Law Centre, should help in these efforts.

5.4 Avoiding Environmental Disputes

89. Many disputes can be avoided or more readily resolved if the principles, rights, and responsibilities cited earlier are built into 'national and international legal frameworks and are fully respected and implemented by man' states. Individuals and states are more reluctant to act in a way that might lead to a dispute when, as in many national legal systems, there is an established and effective capacity as well as ultimately binding procedures for settling disputes. Such a capacity and procedures are largely lacking at the international level, particularly on environmental and natural resource management issues.^[1]

90. It is recommended that public and privet, organizations and NGOs help in thin area by establishing special panels or rosters of experts with experience in various forms of dispute settlement and special competence on the legal and substantive aspects of environmental protection, natural resources management, and sustainable development. In addition, a consolidated inventory and referral system of network for responding to requests for advice and assistance in avoiding or resolving such disputes should be established.

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1. For on overview of dispute settlement procedures, mechanisms, and needs. see E.E. Stein and G. Grenville Wood, 'The Settlement of Environmental Dispute: A Forward Look', prepared for WCED, 1985.