The Aarhus Convention
As regards its relevance for environmental disputes, Article 47 of the EU Charter is not the sole EU guarantee on access to justice in environmental matters. Most notably, the EU is a party to the 1998 UN Convention On Access To Information, Public Participation In Decision-Making And Access To Justice In Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention).
In addition to requiring the parties to ensure public access to information and public participation in decision-making, the Aarhus Convention obliges the parties to ensure access to justice in environmental matters. The Convention distinguishes among three categories of acts, decisions and omissions for which access to a review procedure must be ensured by the Convention parties. In effect, these three categories cover all kinds of acts and omissions relating to environmental laws.
First, access to a review procedure before a court or court-like body must be ensured for situations where a member of the public considers that his or her request for environmental information has been ignored or wrongfully handled (Art. 9(1)).
Second, access to a review procedure must be provided for members of the public concerned to challenge the substantive and procedural legality of any decision, act or omission relating to permits and permit procedures for specific activities (large projects) listed in Annex I (Art. 9(2)). The Convention provides criteria for determining the scope of “the public concerned”.
Third, each party must ensure members of the public access to administrative or judicial procedures to challenge any other act or omission, by private persons and public authorities, which contravene provisions of national law relating to the environment. In different ways, the Convention limits the discretion for the parties in defining the scope of persons with access to review procedures (see below). Furthermore, the procedures must provide adequate and effective remedies, including injunctive relief as appropriate, and be fair, equitable, timely and not prohibitively expensive (Art. 9(4)). The Aarhus Convention Compliance Comittee (ACCC) has also reviewed compliance with the provisions on access to justice, e.g. for Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Belgium, Denmark, and Lithuania.
