Judicial perspectives from the European Union for Public Participation in Environmental Matters in East Asia

Abstract

This paper aims to provide judicial perspectives for Public Participation in Environmental Matters in East Asia based on the example of the European Union (EU). This is done both by means of an in-depth literature review which covers research papers, legislative documents and court decisions, and by means of a comparative analysis of court cases. The focus is on the implementation by the EU of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Aarhus Convention, which applies and details Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration. The assessment starts by providing an overview of several legislative documents issued by the EU for different policy sectors and briefly describes the contents regarding the implementation of the Aarhus Convention. Based thereon, the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union is analysed. Seventeen judgements enforcing the Aarhus Convention for the EU level are described and their significance to a regional integration process is outlined. This provides valuable information to a region such as East Asia which plans to enter soon into a stronger regional integration process and which has the clear potential for improvement toward increased Public Participation in Environmental Matters based on the globally applicable Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration.