For some, a protectionist policy underlies most environmental measures. Lawyers working in the area of fundamental freedoms are very accustomed to discussing all issues within a free market framework and therefore often come to market-friendly decisions. Similarly, while environmental law has taken on a renewed intensity at European level, the tendency has been to analyse the subject rather narrowly, and studies fail to address the impact of environmental law on market integration. Written by one of the foremost experts in the area, the book challenges current thought and re-assesses the rules of economic integration within an environmental framework. In so doing, it bridges the gap between environmental and trade law and provides a systematic, robust, and practically workable analytical framework of the conflicts opposing rapidly evolving environmental and climate change measures and internal market as well as competition rules. The book is divided into three parts, beginning with a systematic and in-depth analysis of the key Treaty provisions regarding environmental protection, as well as an overview of secondary environmental law. Part two addresses the compatibility of EU and national environmental protection measures with the provisions of the TFEU on the free movement of goods and services, and the freedom of establishment. Part three examines the compatibility of environmental protection measures with treaty provisions on the freedom of competition and State aids. The book also includes discussion of all major cases handed down by the Court of Justice, highlighting the real impact of the conflicts.

This book analyses the Habitats Directive; one of the most prominent piece of EU environmental legislation of the past decades. Seen by some as the cornerstone of Europe’s nature conservation policy, among other measures the Directive established the so-called "Natura 2000" ecological network, which covers more than 18% of the surface of the EU. However, despite the fact the Directive was adopted over twenty years ago only 17% of the protected habitats and species in Europe are being adequately protected while 10-60 % of animal species remain under threat. In light of the limited success and the contested nature of the Habitats Directive so far this book examines the successes and failures of the Habitats Directive from a legal and political angle. The book brings together international experts to consider the application, implementation and future of the Habitats Directive in order to assess whether the Habitats Directive is resilient enough to tackle biodiversity loss in the twenty- first century. Particular emphasis is put on the legal regime attached to the Natura 2000 network and its possible impact on land development and the relationship between the Habitats Directive and other topics including liability for ecological damage and transboundary nature conservation.

This Handbook is the first comprehensive account of comparative environmental law. It examines in detail the methodological foundations of the discipline as well as the substance of environmental law across countries from four vantage points: country studies from all continents, responses to common problems (including air pollution, water management, nature conservation, genetically modified organisms, climate change and energy, chemicals, waste), foundational components of environmental law systems (including principles, property rights, administrative and judicial organisation, command-and-control regulation, market mechanisms, informational techniques and liability mechanisms), and common interactions of environmental protection with the broader public, private, and criminal law contexts. The volume brings together the foremost authorities in this field from around the world to provide a concise, self-contained, and technically rigorous account of environmental law as a single overall system.

Europe still retains large areas which play host to numerous native and free-functioning ecosystems and lack roads, buildings, bridges, cables and other permanent manifestations of modern society. In the past such areas were considered wastelands, whose value lay only in their potential for cultivation and economic exploitation. Today, these wilderness areas are increasingly cherished as places for rest and recreation, and as important areas for scientific research, biodiversity conservation and the mitigation of and adaptation to certain climate change effects. This book provides the first major appraisal of the role of international, European and domestic law in protecting the remaining wilderness areas and their distinguishing qualities in Europe. It also highlights the lessons that can be learned from the various international, regional and national approaches, identifies obstacles to wilderness protection in Europe and considers whether and how the legal protection of wilderness can be further advanced.

The book aims at understanding the current distribution and use of powers over the environment among various layers of government and their consequences on environmental protection, comparing federal, regional and unitary State models and drawing theoretical and practical consequences.

This book traces the evolution of environmental principles from their origins as vague political slogans reflecting fears about environmental hazards to their embodiment in enforceable laws. Environmental law has always responded to risks posed by industrial society but the new generation of risks have required a new set of environmental principles, emerging from a combination of public fears, science, ethics, and established legal practice. This book shows how three of the most important principles of modern environmental law grew out of this new age of ecological risk: the polluter pays principle, the preventive principle, and the precautionary principle. Since the first edition was published, the principles of polluter-pays, prevention, and precaution have been encapsulated in a swathe of legislation at domestic and international level. Courts have been invoking environmental law principles in a broad range of cases, on issues including GMOs, conservation, investment, waste, and climate change. As a result, more States are paying heed to these principles as catalysts for improving their environmental laws and regulations. This edition will integrate to a greater extent the relationship between environmental principles and human rights. The book analyses new developments including the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which has continuously carved out environmental duties from a number of rights enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights, and the implementation of the UNECE Convention on Access to Information.