Morrow, Karen --- "The Courts and Public Participation in Environmental Decision-making" [2011] ELECD 648; in Benidickson, Jamie; Boer, Ben; Benjamin, Herman Antonio; Morrow, Karen (eds), "Environmental Law and Sustainability after Rio" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Environmental Law and Sustainability after Rio

Editor(s): Benidickson, Jamie; Boer, Ben; Benjamin, Herman Antonio; Morrow, Karen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857932242

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: The Courts and Public Participation in Environmental Decision-making

Author(s): Morrow, Karen

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

9. The courts and public participation in
environmental decision-making
Karen Morrow

1. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, enhanced rights for the public to access information and
participate in environmental regulation prompted by pursuing the sustainable
development agenda have ostensibly wrought considerable change in the
operation of environmental decision-making in the UK. This chapter
considers the effectiveness of such initiatives and in particular the role of
case law and the judiciary in this regard.
Historically, regulatory processes in the United Kingdom have been
characterised by an institutional culture that combines elements that are
generally hostile to meaningful public participation, notably professionalism
and secrecy. In the environmental sphere, problems securing effective
engagement are further aggravated by the often highly technical and complex
issues involved, especially the difficulties posed by `asymmetric information'
in participation contexts (Lewis, 1999). 1 This is arguably a problem that
permeates the whole participation process, founded on differentials in the
availability and understanding of information itself. The role of the public in
environmental decision-making processes has been fraught with particular
difficulty. New systems of legal entitlement to information attempt to address
the former, though the fact that much information in the environmental field
is intractably technical and confusing to the layman is generally not touched
upon. 2
A number of initiatives, spurred in particular by the UN/ECE Convention
on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and
Access to Justice in Environmental Matters 1998 (the Aarhus Convention) 3
have sought to remedy some of the ...