Access to Justice in Environmental Matters and the Aarhus Convention's Effects in the EU Legal Order: No Room for Nuanced Self‐executing Effect?

This article examines two recent decisions by the Court of Justice of the E uropean U nion on the effect of the Aarhus Convention in the E uropean U nion) legal order. Compared to earlier case law, the Court missed an opportunity to nuance its approach towards the self‐executing character of the Convention's provisions. As a consequence of the Court's overly rigid jurisprudence, a provision of the Convention cannot serve as a benchmark to review the very same Convention's implementing measure at the EU level, the Aarhus Regulation. Sceptical of this outcome, the article suggests a more nuanced approach and provides arguments in support of this approach.