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7 N.E. L. Rev. 72 (2020)
Evaluating the United Kingdom's Domestic Access to Justice Regime for Environmental Matters in Light of Its Implementation of the Aarhus Convention

handle is hein.journals/neastlr7 and id is 77 raw text is: NORTH EAST LAW REVIEW Evaluating the United Kingdom's Domestic Access to Justice Regime for Environmental Matters in Light of its Implementation of the Aarhus Convention Rosie Brain 1. Introduction In 2005, the United Kingdom ratified the Aarhus Convention, a UNECE treaty designed to improve access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. This is important because the environment cannot seek redress for itself before a court so there is considerable debate on the most effective means for achieving justice for breaches of environmental law. In this article, I will seek to prove that the UK's domestic implementation of the access to justice pillar, in Article 9 of the Aarhus Convention, is inadequate. In order to prove this, I will illustrate the significance of access to justice in the environmental context and examine the domestic implementation of Article 9. As part of this, I will consider the effectiveness of the Environmental Cost Protection Regime by looking at variable cost caps and private environmental claims. The result will show that access to justice under ECPR is insufficient: the variable cost cap causes uncertainty which has a chilling effect on environmental litigation and the omission of private nuisance from an appropriate cost protection regime leads to prohibitive expense. In light of these two failings, it is concluded that the domestic implementation has ultimately failed in addressing the wide access to justice aims of the Convention. This emphasises the importance of an effective implementation because as long as the UK fails in this area, the ensuing benefits from access to justice will remain limited. 2. Access to Justice The objective of the Aarhus Convention is 'to contribute to the protection of the right of every person' to live in a healthy environment.1 To achieve this aim, it sets out three procedural rights which focus on enhancing public participation for all citizens, the third of which is access to ' UNECE, Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus, 25 June 1998), art 1 <www.unece org/fileadmin/DAMenv/--/docurnents/cep43exdf> accessed 26 March 2020 72

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