EU environmental law. Challenges, change and decision-making

Abstract:

This work looks at EU environmental law in the context of its democratic legitimacy, economic efficiency and the structure of decision-making.

The book is organised over nine chapters. The first gives the background to some of the significant issues such as the economic rationale, public values and politics of environmental decision-making. Chapter two examines the important influence of sustainable development upon environmental policy. Chapter three explores the difficulties encountered in the implementation and enforcement of EU environmental law. The relationship between technical expertise and politics and the implications of the EU approach to the precautionary principle are covered in chapter four. The importance of public participation in environmental decision-making is the subject of chapter five which considers the impact of the UN ECE Aarhus Convention. Chapter six examines the role of EU legislation in the strengthening of Member States commitments made in the Aarhus Convention. The influence of market-orientated public participation in environmental regulation is discussed in chapter seven. Chapter eight concentrates upon waste management and the changing focus of waste management from ‘end of pipe’ regulation to further back in the waste chain. Chapter nine examines the regulation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the tensions arising between lay and expert understandings of risk, contradictions between EU and national authorities, and the pressures from global trade liberalisation. A short final chapter presents some conclusions drawn from the study.

Maria Lee is a Senior Lecturer in Law at King's College London.