The Foundations of the Aarhus Convention: Environmental Democracy, Rights and Stewardship , EMILYBARRITT, Oxford: Hart, 2020, 188 pp., £70.00

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
SYNDA OBAJI
Keyword(s):  
Aarhus Convention ◽  
Environmental Democracy

Two Years in the Life: The Pioneering Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee 2004–2006

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-154
Author(s):  
Fiona Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Modus Operandi ◽  
The Public ◽  
First Case ◽  
Aarhus Convention ◽  
Environmental Agreement ◽  
Case Work ◽  
Environmental Democracy

AbstractThe UNECE's Aarhus Convention is widely considered as a leading light in the area of environmental democracy. Its Compliance Committee is similarly innovative, being the first multilateral environmental agreement to allow members of the public to trigger its compliance procedure. In February 2004 the first case by a member of the public seeking a review of a State Party's compliance was submitted to the Compliance Committee. Since then a further fifteen cases from members of the public have been received. This paper contains a review of the Compliance Committee's pioneering work over the last two years. The paper begins with a brief background on the Aarhus Convention. It then describes the structure and modus operandi of the Compliance Committee. The cases brought before the Committee to date are then discussed, including where relevant the Committee's findings and recommendations and the Meeting of the Parties' decisions. The paper ends with observations drawn from the Committee's case work thus far.

scholarly journals The direct effect of the Aarhus Convention as seen by the French ‘Conseil d’Etat’

elni Review ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 63-73
Author(s):  
Julien Bétaille
Keyword(s):  
Direct Effect ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Aarhus Convention ◽  
Legislative Changes ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Environmental Democracy

France ratified the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters on the 8th July 2002 and the Convention came into force on the 6th October 2002. Seen as an instrument of ‘environmental democracy’, the impact of the Convention in France has been relative. On the one hand, the Convention did not imply many legislative changes. The 2002 law relating to the ‘proximity democracy’ has provided the main legislative change due to the Convention through an improvement of the ‘public debate’ procedure. On the other hand, the judge has had an important role to play. Citizens and non-governmental organisations saw the Convention as an opportunity to improve their rights and invoked the Convention before the courts. It gave the judge the opportunity to interpret the Convention and fix its legal impact in French law. The judge limited direct effects of the Aarhus Convention to a few stipulations and “choose a soft interpretation of this treaty’s requirements”. This study focuses on the case law of the French administrative highest jurisdiction, the ‘Conseil d’Etat’. The ‘Cour de cassation’, never had to pronounce on any of the Aarhus Convention provisions. It is first of all necessary to understand how the ‘Conseil d’Etat’ assesses the direct effect of the treaties before analysing how the ‘Conseil d’Etat’ applies it to the Aarhus Convention.

scholarly journals Das Maßnahmengesetzvorbereitungsgesetz vom 22. März 2020 – Fundament legislativer Bauwerke ohne Rechtsschutz?

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-112
Author(s):  
Alexander Brigola ◽  
Franziska Heß
Keyword(s):  
Aarhus Convention

ZusammenfassungMit Datum vom 1.4.2020 trat das Gesetz zur Vorbereitung der Schaffung von Baurecht durch Maßnahmengesetz im Verkehrsbereich in Kraft (Maßnahmengesetzvorbereitungsgesetz, “MgvG”). Es soll die Basis schaffen, einen Katalog von Verkehrsinfrastrukturprojekten auf der Schiene und zu Wasser durch Legislativ- statt durch Verwaltungsakt zulassen zu können. Das selbst gesteckte Ziel des Bundestages ist die Steigerung der Akzeptanz in der Bevölkerung sowie die beschleunigte Realisierung der gelisteten Vorhaben. Der vorliegende Beitrag nähert sich dem legislativen Fundament mit skurrilem Namen in vier Schritten: Zunächst wird, erstens, das MgvG im Überblick in seinen beiden Ebenen vorgestellt, die das vorgeschaltete behördliche Verfahren und den Legislativakt beinhalten. Sodann wird, zweitens, der verfassungsrechtliche Leading Case hinsichtlich der Zulassung von Verkehrsinfrastrukturprojekten durch Maßnahmengesetz analysiert, der Beschluss des BVerfG zur Südumfahrung Stendal aus dem Juli 1996. In einem dritten Schritt wird der Scheinwerfer auf das Völker- und Unionsrecht gerichtet: Die Crossrail-Entscheidung des Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee aus dem Jahr 2011 sowie das Urteil des EuGH im Fall Inter-Environment Wallonie aus dem Jahr 2019 werden vorgestellt. Am Ende wird, viertens, ein Fazit stehen, das die ambitionierte Mission des Bundestages auf den Boden der rechtsstaatlichen Tatsachen zurückholt und den gebotenen fachgerichtlichen Rechtsschutz einfordert.

Public participation in the preparation of plans and programs: some reflections on the scope of obligations under Article 7 of the Aarhus Convention

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-515
Author(s):  
Jerzy Jendrośka
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Aarhus Convention ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Scope Of Application

AbstractThe article aims to present the main legal issues related to implementation of the provisions of Article 7 of the Aarhus Convention regarding public participation in the preparations of plans and programs. The analysis is presented against the background of an overview of the legal nature and scope of obligations stemming from the second pillar of the Convention. The article attempts to identify the scope of application of Article 7 and the main elements of the framework for public participation included therein. The legal analysis is based, where appropriate, on the respective opinions of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee. The implementation of the Aarhus Convention in EU law will be addressed in this respect in a separate article in the forthcoming issue of the journal.

A Procedural Idea of Environmental Democracy: the 'Débat Public' Paradigm within the EU Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-106
Author(s):  
Alberto Nicòtina
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
National Level ◽  
Research Subject ◽  
Environmental Decision Making ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
Débat Public ◽  
Environmental Democracy ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Environmental Decision

The aim of this paper is to analyse the 'débat public' procedure, which finds its roots in the Canadian legal system and its most defined formulation in France, and which more recently has been circulating to Italy – first at the regional level and, since 2016, at the national level. The first part of the paper will thus be devoted to a historical overview of the débat public and to how it is implemented in each of the two legal systems. The second part will subsequently distil the 'paradigm', i. e. those distinctive traits that make the débat public an autonomous research subject, within the multi-layered legislative framework of environmental governance in Europe. Three main features of the paradigm will be pointed out (Participation, Effectiveness, Authority), thus highlighting how it can respond to the needs in light of which it has been designed, namely dealing with proximity conflicts and providing a forum for the construction of shared rational decisions in environmental decision-making. The paper eventually leads to the conclusion that the débat public, with its codified rules and procedures, represents the first and probably the most noticeable attempt towards the institutionalisation and generalisation of deliberative practices in environmental decision-making, thus towards developing a procedural stance in environmental democracy.

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