This important new monograph offers an innovative new analysis of the Aarhus Convention. Environmental law is dense with monolithic concepts, from environmental democracy to intergenerational justice, from sustainable development to stewardship. Each concept generates its own mythology about what environmental law should aspire to. Sometimes these ideas become so big that we lose hold of their meaning and therefore what we allude to when we describe environmental law in such terms. No more so is this true than in relation to the Aarhus Convention – an ambitious instrument of environmental law that promotes public participation and access to justice in relation to the environment. Since its inception it has been revered in glowing terms, and praised variously for its contribution to citizenship, environmental responsibility and democratic legitimacy. But how are we to know whether these descriptions are mere puffs or genuine statements about the Convention's character? This book digs deep into the foundations of the Aarhus Convention, examining its ambitious potential through the lens of three foundational purposes – environmental rights, democracy and stewardship. In so doing, it contributes to our understanding both of the Convention and our understanding of three important purposes that inhabit environmental law, unravelling and reassembling them to build meaning into our broad-brush descriptions.

This important new monograph offers an innovative new analysis of the Aarhus Convention. Environmental law is dense with monolithic concepts, from environmental democracy to intergenerational justice, from sustainable development to stewardship. Each concept generates its own mythology about what environmental law should aspire to. Sometimes these ideas become so big that we lose hold of their meaning and therefore what we allude to when we describe environmental law in such terms. No more so is this true than in relation to the Aarhus Convention – an ambitious instrument of environmental law that promotes public participation and access to justice in relation to the environment. Since its inception it has been revered in glowing terms, and praised variously for its contribution to citizenship, environmental responsibility and democratic legitimacy. But how are we to know whether these descriptions are mere puffs or genuine statements about the Convention's character? This book digs deep into the foundations of the Aarhus Convention, examining its ambitious potential through the lens of three foundational purposes – environmental rights, democracy and stewardship. In so doing, it contributes to our understanding both of the Convention and our understanding of three important purposes that inhabit environmental law, unravelling and reassembling them to build meaning into our broad-brush descriptions.

This important new monograph offers an innovative new analysis of the Aarhus Convention. Environmental law is dense with monolithic concepts, from environmental democracy to intergenerational justice, from sustainable development to stewardship. Each concept generates its own mythology about what environmental law should aspire to. Sometimes these ideas become so big that we lose hold of their meaning and therefore what we allude to when we describe environmental law in such terms. No more so is this true than in relation to the Aarhus Convention – an ambitious instrument of environmental law that promotes public participation and access to justice in relation to the environment. Since its inception it has been revered in glowing terms, and praised variously for its contribution to citizenship, environmental responsibility and democratic legitimacy. But how are we to know whether these descriptions are mere puffs or genuine statements about the Convention's character? This book digs deep into the foundations of the Aarhus Convention, examining its ambitious potential through the lens of three foundational purposes – environmental rights, democracy and stewardship. In so doing, it contributes to our understanding both of the Convention and our understanding of three important purposes that inhabit environmental law, unravelling and reassembling them to build meaning into our broad-brush descriptions.

United Nations publication sales no. E.13.II.E.3"--Page 4 of cover.

The Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters has been celebrated as a pioneering international environmental agreement. Given that a quarter-century has passed since Aarhus was opened for signature, now is an opportune moment to revisit it from a fresh perspective. Marking this anniversary, this book explores Aarhus from the vista of the English School of International Relations, an ethically-minded perspective used to gauge the prevalence of state-oriented and human-oriented progress from the Convention's rationales and realities. It firstly considers Aarhus' propagation, investigating the legal, diplomatic and geopolitical contexts enabling its emergence. It secondly investigates Aarhus' germination, with reference to its trinity of procedural rights. Thirdly, the book examines the Convention's growth, in terms of the development of its organisational infrastructure. The chief finding is that Aarhus demonstrates, in environmental contexts, the feasibility and benefit of fostering 'humankind' solidarist progress, rooted in moral cosmopolitanism, within the existing power arrangements of a sovereignty-based pluralism. Pluralist concerns for diversity and international order are found to be a precondition for more ethically ambitious solidarist endeavours. These observations reinforce the logic of solidarisation, an English School innovation that presents sovereignty as (a) being ethically matured by solidarism whilst (b) delimiting solidarism within the threshold of states' tolerance.

A concise, clear, and legally rigorous introduction to international environmental law and practice covering the very latest developments.