Contents:

Chapter 1 - - Introduction. Introduction Chapter 2 - Access to Justice in Selected EC Member States Belgium. Nicolas de Sadeleer with the collaboration of Jacques Sambon 1 Belgium 1.1 The Ordinary Courts and Tribunals 1.2 The Council of State 1.3 The Arbitration Court Denmark Ulf Kjellerup 2 Denmark 2.1 The locus standi of citizen groupings and environmental NGO’s 2.1.1 The organization of authorities and distribution of competencies 2.1.2 The Appeal Boards and their area of competence 2.1.3 The legislation providing access to justice 2.1.3.a Procedures in legislation 2.1.3.b Administrative review procedures – standing requirements 2.1.4 Judicial review challenging permit procedures 2.1.5 Administrative procedures challenging the acts or omission of acts by public authorities 2.1.6 Judicial review of acts or omission of acts by public authorities 2.1.7 Adequate and effective remedies France Sandrine Bélier 3 Introduction 3.1 The court structure and admissibility of complaints 3.1.1 The ordinary courts 3.1.2 The administrative courts 3.2 Environmental actions 3.2.1 Damages claims in environmental law 3.2.2 Criminal prosecutions under environmental law 3.2.3 Environmental administrative law 3.3 Proceedings instigated by environmental associations 3.3.1 Title and interest to sue for environmental protection associations 3.3.1.a Title to sue 3.3.1.b. Legal interest and representation 3.3.2 Interest to act for the defence of the environment 3.3.2.a Criminal prosecutions 3.3.2.b Damages actions 3.3.2.c Administrative actions 3.3.3 Conclusion 3.4 Analysis of case law 1996-2001 3.4.1 Proportion of environment cases 3.4.1.a The relative impact of the actions by environmental associations 3.4.1.b Distribution of associative actions 3.4.2 The effectiveness of associative actions 3.4.2.a Administrative courts 3.4.2.b Ordinary courts 3.4.3 The limits of direct actions 3.4.3.a Time limits filing actions and court rulings 3.4.3.b The implementation of legal rulings 3.4.4 Persistent and developing obstacles 3.4.4.a Admissibility 3.4.4.b Economic aspects 3.5 Conclusion Germany Miriam Dross 4.1 Germany 4.2 Legal framework of the public interest action in Germany 4.2.1 The Federal Nature Conservation Act (FNCA) 4.2.1.a Areas of application 4.2.1.b Actions against plan approval decisions 4.2.1.c Further general prerequisites for admissibility 4.2.2 Länder regulation of public interest action 4.3 Analysis of cases in the period 1996-2001 4.3.1. Methodology 4.3.2 Scope of the collection of cases 4.3.3 Outcome of the cases in the period 1996-2001 4.3.4 Subject matters of actions and types of actions 4.3.5 Socio-economic aspects 4.4 Conclusions Italy Stefano Nespor 5 Italy 5.1 The Italian legal system and the environmental rights 5.2 Environmental rights and the Administrative Courts 5.2.1 In general 5.2.2 Standing and the Administrative Court 5.2.3 The evolution of standing in environmental matters 5.2.4 Does official recognition of environmental organizations preclude judicial recognition of standing of non-recognized organizations? 5.2.5 Does standing only concern decisions on strictly environmental matters? 5.2.6 Do only national representatives of the recognized environmental organization have standing? 5.2.7 Statistical data 5.3 Environmental rights and the Civil Courts 5.3.1 In general 5.3.2 Restoration under the provision of the Article 18 of the Law 8-7-1986 n.349 93 5.3.3 Restoration based on the subsidiary action of the environmental organizations 5. 4 Environmental rights and the Criminal Courts 5.4.1 In general 5.4.2 The Law 447\1988 The Netherlands Jonathan Verschuuren 6 The Netherlands 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Description of proceedings in the Netherlands 6.2.1 Characteristics of the country 6.2.2 Procedures before administrative courts 6.2.2.a Procedures against permits: ‘anyone’ 6.2.2.b Abolishing the actio popularis in the Netherlands 6.2.2.c Procedures against other environmental decisions: ‘interested parties’ 6.2.3 Procedures before civil courts 6.2.4 Procedures before criminal courts 6.2.5 Non-judicial procedures 6.3 Empirical data 6.3.1 Methodology 6.3.2 Sharp decline in the number of environmental and planning cases since 1997 6.3.3 Number of cases brought before an administrative court by NGOs and other parties 6.3.4 Civil law cases 6.3.5 Number of cases won and lost by NGOs and local citizen groups 6.4 Case study 6.4.1 Introduction 6.4.2 Setting of the case 6.4.2.a District Court of The Hague 24 November 1999 6.4.2.b Court of Appeal of The Hague 2 August 2001 6.4.2.c Supreme Court 21 March 2003 6.4.3 Environmental effectiveness 6.4.4 Legal and ‘democratic’ aspects 6.4.5 Socio-economic aspects 6.5 Conclusion Portugal Isabel Carinhas de Andrade and Gonçalo Cavalheiro 7 Portugal 7.1 General legal framework of the country 7.2 Portuguese environmental law and enforcement procedures 7.3 Access to justice by citizens and NGOs – the actio popularis 7.3.1 Legal standing 7.3.2 Possible judicial procedures 7.3.3 Powers of the court 7.3.4 Legal representation 7.3.5 Court costs 7.3.6 Publicity of the decision 7.4 Non judicial procedures 7.5 Empirical data 7.5.1 Methodology 7.5.2 Analysis of relevant lawsuits between 1995-2002 7.5.3 Overview analysis United Kingdom Maurice Sheridan 8 United Kingdom 8.1 Legal regimes in the United Kingdom 8.1.1 The Criminal Courts 8.1.2 The Civil Courts 8.1.3 The Administrative Court 8.1.4 Environmental regulatory appeals 143 8.2 The issue of ‘standing’ 144 8.3 Third party interventions 147 8.3.1 In judicial review 147 8.3.2 Third party rights in other types of environmental proceedings 8.3.2.a Third party rights on land-use appeals from decisions of the relevant public authorities 8.3.2.b Third party rights on environmental license appeals from decisions of the regulatory authorities 8.3.2.c Third party rights on statutory appeals/applications to the courts 8.4 Standing in criminal cases on environmental matters 8.5 Discussion of barriers to access to justice 8.5.1 The obligation to pay the costs of the other parties in judicial review proceedings if the application fails 8.5.2. Restricted access to ‘pre-emptive’ costs orders 8.5.3 Seeking an interim injunction where there is a requirement to give a cross-undertaking in damages 8.5.4 Restricted access to public legal assistance 8.5.5 Access to pro bono and similar representation 8.5.6 The disparate nature of environmental proceedings 8.5.7 Difficulties in accessing environmental appeals and case reports 8.6 Cases review 8.7 Conclusions 8.7.1 The question of formal procedural barriers to standing in environmental matters 8.7.2 The question of systemic or substantive barriers to access to justice Chapter 3 - Synthesis of the National Reports. 1 Introduction 2 Main empirical findings on access to justice 2.1 Overall number of cases 2.2 Trends observed 2.3 Outcome of cases 2.4 Sectors of environmental law involved 2.5 Conclusions regarding empirical findings 3 Benefits of NGO court actions 3.1 Contribution to environmental law and its enforcement 3.1.1 National environmental law 3.1.2 Community environmental law 3.1.3 Conclusion 3.2 Democratic aspects 3.2.1 Public awareness building 3.2.2 Improving participation 4 Conditions for access to justice 4.1 The competent courts and tribunals 4.1.1 Administrative courts 4.1.2 Civil courts 4.1.3 Criminal courts 4.1.4 Other review bodies 4.1.5 Conclusion 4.2 Standing 4.2.1 Different approaches to standing before administrative courts 4.2.2 Specific requirements for standing of NGOs 4.2.3 Conclusions on standing 4.3 Scope of review 4.4 Interim relief 4.5 Costs 4.6 Length of proceedings 5 Conclusions Chapter 4 - Further steps to align Community law with the Aarhus Convention. 1 The current state of Aarhus implementation at Community level 2 The Commission’s proposal for a Directive on access to justice in environmental matters 3 Legislative resolution of the European Parliament 4 Conclusion Bibliography Annex Contributors