Judicial Dialogue and Judicial Competition and Global Environmental Law: A Case Study on the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters

Abstract

The mutual relation and influence of international environmental law and national environmental law has been studied, from both a top-down and as well as a bottom-up perspective: the orthodox analysis of the consequences of international environmental law for national law and policy has been combined with an analysis starting from national law, looking into the influences national law exerts upon international law. Yet, it is submitted that there is another dimension emerging in this mutual relationship. This dimension reflects a more ‘horizontal’ approach in the sense that the main focus is the relationship between national and international actors who exchange information, decisions, rulings, opinions and ideas about how international environmental law rules, institutions, principles and concepts should or could be fleshed out and further developed.

This paper focuses on the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on legal protection in environmental matters and will discuss how judicial dialogue and judicial competition between the various bodies, courts, tribunals, etc., on both the national and international level, contribute to the emergence of a global environmental law on legal protection in environmental matters. In particular the interplay between the Aarhus Compliance Committee, the European Court of Justice, and the supreme national administrative courts of e.g. Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands will be highlighted.

Keywords: Access to Justice, Public Participation, Aarhus Convention, judicial dialogue, judicial competition

JEL Classification: K32, K33