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 • Confident, well resourced regulators • Confident, well resourced civil society • Rule of law … • And Brexit?

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)

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

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

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?

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

Institutions after Brexit - The Environment Bill (no 3) https://www.brexitenvironment.co.uk/2019/10/18 https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2019- /framework-progressive-environmental-law/ 20/environment.html

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

The vigilance of individuals …? • Aarhus rights? • ‘Environmental review’ clause • Complaints to OEP • Judicial review and access to justice • Potentially empowered by reporting / independent expertise “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

Institutions for the effectiveness of environmental law Professor Maria Lee UCL Faculty of Laws Centre for Law and the Environment