Judicial review and the protection of non-commercial interests in the European Community

Recent years have witnessed the development of new Community objectives and concerns such as the protection of the environment and human rights. These new objectives represent a very different type of interest to those governing the original, primarily economic, focus which shaped the development of the Community and its law. One question which has arisen with this development concerns the protection and enforcement of rights resulting from these new interests, in particular the requirements for locus standi of individuals to bring an action for judicial review. The issues surrounding this question came to a head in the Greenpeace case. This case was ultimately resolved without the Court addressing the special nature of environmental interests, which it dismissed as only indirectly affected. It is possible to conclude, from comparison with cases in other areas, that Greenpeace represents a move by the Court to prevent the abuse of Community law provisions (by their exploitation for purposes other than those for which they were intended) rather than providing a response to the new interest before it. This notwithstanding, the scope of the Community's new interests demands that this question is resolved in the interest of the credibility of such new policies.