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Access to Justice in Environmental Matters and the Aarhus Convention's Effects in the EU Legal Order: No Room for Nuanced Self‐executing Effect?
Author(s) -
Pirker Benedikt
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
review of european, comparative and international environmental law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 2050-0394
pISSN - 2050-0386
DOI - 10.1111/reel.12124
Subject(s) - convention , skepticism , order (exchange) , jurisprudence , law , economic justice , political science , law and economics , sociology , business , epistemology , philosophy , finance
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.