scholarly journals Digital citizens’ participation right in defense of the environment

2021 ◽  
pp. 326-339
Author(s):  
Maria Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
The European Union ◽  
United Nations Economic Commission ◽  
National Regulation ◽  
Aarhus Convention ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
The Right

The Aarhus Convention of June 25, 1998, of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters, introduced the commitment of each signing State to ensure, within the framework of its national regulation, that citizens could suit and appeal any decision, or any action or omission that falls within the scope of public participation regarding issues on environmental matters. Hence, citizens are entitled to appeal administratively and judicially against public environmental decisions if they invoke a legal infringement in relation to this issue. Access to justice for violation of the rights of public participation are set out in the same terms on Regulation (EU) number 1367/2006, of September 6, relating to the application, to the institutions and community bodies, of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice on environmental matters. Although the right of access is quite broad, it is not exempt from exceptions, such as those indicated on the Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of January 28, on public access to environmental information, which has recently been interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Union on the Judgement (First Chamber) of January 20, 2021 in the Land Baden-Württemberg case (Communications internes). However, all this is not useful if citizens are not granted with the possibility of accessing to control judicially administrative decisions that do not comply with environmental policies with the same extension, because the opportunity for any citizen to be entitled to effectively control these actions is being excluded. This paper aims to analyze the extent of the right of citizens to participate digitally in public decision-making of an environmental nature, and determine if such right is consistent with the possibilities of access to justice in this matter, since only through judicially control of the administrative decisions it is possible to make the participation right effective.

Public participation in decisions on specific activities in environmental matters in Croatia

elni Review ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 13-19
Author(s):  
Lana Ofak
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Positive Outcome ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Aarhus Convention ◽  
Specific Activities ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

Croatia finished accession negotiations with the EU in June 2011. The Accession Treaty was signed on 9 December 2011. The EU accession referendum in Croatia was held in January 2012 with a positive outcome. 66.27% of Croatian citizens voted in favour of Croatian accession to the European Union and 33.13% of votes were against the accession. Following ratification of the Accession Treaty by the 27 EU member states, accession of Croatia to the EU is expected to take place on 1 July 2013. In the 2011 Progress Report, European Commission stated that there has been progress in the area of environment. Overall, Croatia’s environmentorientated preparations are nearing completion in terms of both alignment and implementation of the relevant legislation. However, implementation of the horizontal acquis, and in particular effective public participation and access to justice in environmental matters, need to be improved. The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly, it provides a general overview of the legal framework for public participation in decisions on specific activities in Croatia, which is intended to implement provisions of Art. 6 of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (hereinafter: the Aarhus Convention or Convention). Implementation of Art. 7 and 8 of the Aarhus Convention are not discussed. Secondly, specific problems in exercising the right to participate in environmental impact assessment procedures in Croatia are analysed. It is shown that there are cases of non-compliance with the provisions of Art. 6 of the Aarhus Convention.

scholarly journals Participation in groundwater governance – outlining a path to inclusive development

Water Policy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1050-1064
Author(s):  
Gabriela Cuadrado-Quesada ◽  
Joyeeta Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Groundwater Governance ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
The Right

Abstract Although there is considerable research on participation, there is little that combines the relationship between access to information, participation and access to justice and how these can be combined to enhance groundwater governance. Hence, this article addresses the question: How can legal frameworks that recognize the right to participation alleviate local groundwater governance problems in different contexts? In order to address this question, this article reviews the literature on participation, law, policy and inclusive development and analyses selected legal frameworks that recognize participation, access to information and access to justice to determine how these frameworks have been implemented in groundwater governance. The selected contexts include Australia and Costa Rica. The findings show that (i) access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice are mostly employed in a reactive manner to solve groundwater governance problems; (ii) access to information on groundwater ignores particular features of groundwater resources, such as ‘invisibility’, ‘irreversibility’ especially in relation to fossil resources, the local nature, and limited consensus on the data; (iii) meaningful participation is unlikely until information, learning, knowledge, and awareness about groundwater resources is popularized and (iv) factors enhancing access to information and participation in decision-making in groundwater governance include the existence of a water crisis, leadership, government funding dedicated to organize participatory processes; and small-scale and homogenous communities.

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