SLIDE 1
Institutions for effectiveness
- Robust, ambitious, comprehensive legal and regulatory background
- Confident, well resourced regulators
- Confident, well resourced civil society
- Rule of law …
- And Brexit?
Institutions for the effectiveness of environmental law Professor - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Institutions for the effectiveness of environmental law Professor - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Institutions for the effectiveness of environmental law Professor Maria Lee UCL Faculty of Laws Centre for Law and the Environment Institutions for effectiveness Robust, ambitious, comprehensive legal and regulatory background
SLIDE 2
SLIDE 3
The imperfections of EU environmental law
‘we find ourselves in the paradoxical situation of having to defend various welfare state institutions that we criticised earlier for not being radical enough’ (Chantal Mouffe, 2019)
SLIDE 4
EU Frameworks for making and sticking with environmental norms and obligations
- Commission plus court enforcement and sanctions
- ‘the vigilance of individuals concerned to protect their rights’
Case 26/62 Van Gend en Loos [1963] ECR 1, 13
SLIDE 5
Supporting the vigilance of individuals
- Access to information, rights of public participation,
access to justice
- Routine reports and scrutiny
- Publication
- Independent source of expertise and judgment
- Responses, reviews, iteration
- Judicial review and effective remedies
SLIDE 6
Also imperfect …
- Bureaucratic hurdles rather than meaningful opportunities for
improvements and responsiveness?
- Resources – government, parliament and civil society
- Competing interests, contested values
- Do the tools assist civil society, does civil society assist effectiveness?
SLIDE 7
Institutions after Brexit – the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018
- Retained law
- Correcting ‘deficiencies’
- New section 6(5A) introduced by EU (Withdrawal
Agreement) Act 2020, section 26
SLIDE 8
Institutions after Brexit - The Environment Bill (no 3)
https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2019- 20/environment.html https://www.brexitenvironment.co.uk/2019/10/18 /framework-progressive-environmental-law/
SLIDE 9
Environment Bill Part 1 ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE
- Office for Environmental Protection
- Enforcement
- Monitoring and reporting
- Environmental improvement plans
- Implementation of environmental law
- Environmental targets
- Environmental improvement plans
- Environmental principles
- Lee and Scotford, ‘Environmental Principles after Brexit’
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3322341
SLIDE 10
The vigilance of individuals …?
- Aarhus rights?
- Complaints to OEP
- Potentially empowered by reporting
/ independent expertise
- ‘Environmental review’ clause
- Judicial review and access to justice
“We will set up a Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission to consider the relationship between Government, Parliament and the courts and to explore whether the checks and balances in our constitution are working for everyone.”
Background briefing, Queen’s Speech, Dec 2019
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