Environmental Justice

Getting tough on wildlife crime

Over the past five years wildlife crime has doubled into a global trade worth $19 billion, making it the fourth largest illegal activity in the world (UNEP). Driven by rising demands for ivory, it is now no longer only a conservation, but also a security issue, threatening political and economic stability in central Africa. Wildlife […]

Indigenous peoples

There are approximately 300 million Indigenous People worldwide. Although they make up roughly 4.5 percent of the global population, they account for about 10 percent of the poor. Indigenous Peoples safeguard within their traditional territories about 80 percent of the planet’s biodiversity, yet they legally own less than 11 percent of these lands (World Bank). […]

Judicial Review

As widely reported in the Press, speaking at theCBI conference in November, David Cameron slated judicial review as a “massive growth industry” which was delaying action and costing taxpayers too much money. One good, recent example of a judicial review application that has cost the taxpayer a considerable sum of money is the challenge to […]

Aarhus Implementation

It is always pleasing to see your work cited but the pleasure is mixed with surprise when you see also that some account has been taken of it. I had this unusual experience over the Summer when the Ministry of Justice accepted that research work that I had helped conduct did indeed appear to show […]

Sustainable Development + Rule of Law

The 26 March 2012 saw the launch of the World Congress on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability – a congress of Judges, Attorneys-General, public prosecutors and Minister of environmental justice and many other experts in the legal world. The congress aims to bring the importance of implementation, compliance, and enforcement to the centre […]

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights

This Strasbourg decision is the end of a long saga. Our applicants Hardy and Maile lived near proposed Liquified Natural Gas terminals at Milford Haven. In 2003 and 2004, an oil refiner obtained various consents to enable the LNG to be imported, and the applicants challenged them in the domestic courts. But the image, and […]

Solar subsidies

Background This case arises out of Government widely debated plans to halve the rate of subsidies supporting solar energy installations (the feed-in tariff). Fearing that the scheme was unaffordable, the Government announced a cut to the rate for all eligible installations with effect from 12 December 2011, even though its own consultation on the proposals […]

Supreme Court Appointment

As a trustee of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association (UKELA)  I am delighted to announce that  UKELA’s  President, Sir Robert Carnwath CVO, has been appointed as a Justice to the Supreme Court.   UKELA’s Board of Trustee’s “.. welcomed the appointment of a judge to the Supreme Court who has long standing experience of a range of […]

Environmental Information Regulations

There have been three significant cases from the First Tier Tribunal so far this year spelling out what is meant by ‘environmental information’ under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (2004 No. 3391). In order to implement the E.U. Directive on Public Access to Environmental Information (Directive 2003/4/EC) and assist the UK in meeting its ‘first […]