Public participation in the procedures under the Building Act Abstract This work deals with the participation of environmental NGOs in environmental decision-making with emphasis on the procedures under the Building Act. The purpose is to evaluate the level of public participation in the Czech Republic and assess whether it meets the international obligations. The protection of the environment relies on the activity of public authorities. However, the public participation also plays an important role in this matter. The public participation is a valuable tool of a democratic society, as it may help to protect the environment. The institute of public participation takes many different forms. The rights and duties related to the public participation may vary depending on its particular form. Natural and legal persons are both able to take part in decision-making of public authorities. Nevertheless, these two subjects have different position and may set up different claims in the administrative procedures. The institute of public participation is not regulated unanimously. The regulation varies upon different acts and areas of participation. The regulation of public participation exists at several levels - the international law, the law of the European Union, the national constitutional law and the Czech...

The subject of the thesis is right to information on the environment in the context of the free access to information. It is a progressive area of international law and czech law as well. Their common aim is to guarantee right to information to everybody without exceptions and to remove effectively the obstacles in access to the information. Environmental information are useful instrument for establishment and strengthening of civil society. This thesis aims at anaylising the content, importance and position of all the principal sources of law and determines relationship between them. The thesis puts emphasis on the analysis of the czech law and on finding its possible deficiency.

PRÁVO NA INFORMACE O ŽIVOTNÍM PROSTŘEDÍ | 1 Right to information on the environment ABSTRACT The objective of this thesis is to outline a regulation of the right to environmental information. There are many various reasons for ensuring broad access to environmental information. Apart from necessity of open and transparent government and the general right to know condition of the environment people are living in, the access to environmental information is also recognised as one of the regulatory instruments of the environmental policy. The access to relevant information is a vital assumption for public participation in environmental protection activities, as only broad awareness of environmental matters can develop deeper understanding of the issue and influence the future behaviour and decisions of general public. The thesis is composed of four parts which are further divided into chapters and where appropriate also into subchapters. The first introductory part focuses on bases and reasons for legal regulation of the access to environmental information and contains of two chapters. First chapter concerns the general right to information as one of the internationally accepted human right and the second analyses reasons and development of special treatment of information on environment. Part Two of...

This thesis investigates the implementation of the Aarhus Convention in the Swedish forest sector, with the purpose to understand why the ratification has become so controversial and what the further implications may be for international environmental conventions. Employing a mixed-methods approach a three-part data collection of policy documents, media articles, and interviews with involved actors was done and later analysed through thematic analysis and an implementation-theory framework. From this, it was found that the main contention from the involved actors were based in conceptions of rights and values, and it is recommended for future research to investigate conflicts between different sorts of rights and sovereignty in the context of environmental policy.

1 Abstract The theme of the thesis is public participation in environmental decision-making. Its main aim is to analyse its current legal regulation in the Czech Republic and its deficiencies. The Czech Republic as a party to the Aarhus Convention and a member of the EU is obliged to ensure that the Czech legal regulation complies with the regulation of public participation contained in the Aarhus convention and the EU law. Therefore a small part of this thesis is devoted to analyse those regulation. Main focus, however, lies with the Czech regulation. The thesis examines the most important acts containing the regulation of public participation and draws attention to its deficiencies as well as to the relevant case law. While analysing the specific acts and their deficiencies the thesis focuses on two questions. Firstly, whether all the persons who should be granted the possibility to participate in environmental decision-making under the Aarhus Convention are given this possibility under the Czech law. And secondly, whether the given possibility is truly effective. Finally, the thesis deals with the possibility to redress the inadequate legal regulation by amending the current legislation or by changes in the judicial interpretation.

Štěpán Chejn - Diplomová práce Název práce v českém jazyce: Vybrané otázky přístupu k soudům v ochraně životního prostředí Název práce v anglickém jazyce: Selected issues of access to justice in evironmental protection Abstrakt: Cílem diplomové práce je zhodnotit platnou právní úpravu přístupu k soudům v otázkách životního prostředí ve světle nálezu Výboru pro dodržování Aarhuské úmluvy. Práce nejprve stručně pojednává o teoretických přístupech a obecných otázkách, které jsou pro zhodnocení platné právní úpravy nezbytné, a poté popisuje hlavní body stížnosti. V závěru se pak věnuje tématu odkladného účinku, jelikož v této části nebyla dle Výboru Úmluva porušena. Součástí práce je také autorův vlastní výzkum dle zákona 106/1999 Sb. Klíčová slova: Soudní ochrana životního prostředí, Aarhuská úmluva, odkladný účinek Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the legal regulation of access to justice in environmental matters in the light of findings of the Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention. The thesis briefly discusses theoretical approaches and general issues that are necessary to evaluate existing legislation, and then describes the main points of the complaint. The conclusion is devoted to the topic of suspensive effect, as in this section according to the Compliance Committee the Convention...

En droit de lurbanisme et de lenvironnement, la participation du public correspond aux mécanismes juridiques qui permettent aux particuliers dinfluer sur ladoption, le contenu et la mise en uvre des décisions administratives unilatérales relatives au cadre de vie : enquête publique, commissions consultatives, concertation, initiative, comités daccompagnement, etc. Déjà fort ancienne, mais sinscrivant, plus récemment, dans le mouvement de modification de la manière de « faire de ladministration » initié par la loi de 1991 relative à la motivation formelle des actes administratifs, la participation du public revêt un grand intérêt dans lamélioration du fonctionnement de la démocratie. Son développement quantitatif et qualitatif, réclamé à cor et à cri par les particuliers et les associations de défense de lenvironnement, est désormais imposé par des textes internationaux et communautaires. Sa mise en uvre nest cependant pas sans entraîner certains inconvénients pratiques et sans soulever de délicates questions juridiques. Dans la première partie de louvrage, lauteur dresse de manière systématique létat du droit positif wallon de la participation : les décisions et actes administratifs qui y sont soumis, les personnes qui peuvent participer, les procédures quelles doivent suivre pour le faire et les effets juridiques de leur intervention. Après avoir évoqué lobligation de restructurer cette matière, lauteur fournit, dans la seconde partie de louvrage, les règles sur la base desquelles le droit positif devrait être contrôlé et remanié : Convention dAarhus, droit communautaire dérivé, droit institutionnel et des libertés publiques, droit interne. Enfin, en guise de conclusion générale, lauteur formule, à destination du législateur et des autorités administratives compétentes, une série de propositions concrètes de modifications du droit positif de la participation.

Esta dissertação de mestrado tem como objetivo principal avaliar a participação pública em um caso de gestão de área contaminada no Estado de São Paulo. Para a busca do foco no desenvolvimento desta pesquisa, foram consideradas as três bases de sustentação da Convenção de Aarhus: o acesso à informação, a participação no processo decisório e o acesso à justiça. Esta Convenção foi escolhida por constituir um conjunto consistente de conceitos e recomendações sobre a participação pública em questões socioambientais. É conceituada a Convenção de Aarhus e são discutidos os preceitos das documentações desse acordo internacional, fazendo comparações com alguns autores. Para atender aos objetivos dessa dissertação, é aplicada uma metodologia de estudo de caso, avaliando e verificando se esta participação atende aos preceitos da Convenção, por meio de análise qualitativa. A pesquisa foi realizada por meio de entrevistas individuais com atores envolvidos no caso da Shell Vila Carioca: população do entorno da empresa, técnicos do sistema ambiental e da saúde, representantes do sistema jurídico, médico, jornalista, vereador, representante do terceiro setor e representante da empresa Shell. Foi realizado um paralelo do caso estudado no Brasil com Woburn, o caso de áreas contaminadas nos Estados Unidos que também teve grande repercussão na mídia. Os resultados mostraram as diferentes visões e expectativas de cada ator para o caso. Entre outros aspectos, conclui-se que a população não foi informada adequadamente pelos órgãos públicos, que a participação da população neste caso ainda está se iniciando e que existem mecanismos judiciais para o acesso à justiça, embora a maioria da população não os conheça. Como sugestão, a autora propõe a inserção da participação pública nas etapas do Projeto de Lei de Proteção da Qualidade do Solo e Gerenciamento de Áreas Contaminadas / The objective of this work is to evaluate the participation of the public at a contaminated site case in the State of São Paulo. The basis for the analysis was the three pillars established by the Aarhus Convention (right to access information, right of the public participation and right to access the justice). This tree pillar scheme is a consistent array of concepts regarding the public participation process in environmental matters. The concepts of the Convention were discussed under the view of several authors. To evaluate in the real world the use of the concepts of the CONVENTION a case study were performed: Vila Carioca Contaminated Site in the City of São Paulo. The methodology used were interviews with all main actors involved as local population, environmental state officials, journalist, public attorneys, NGO people, city council members and ,industry representative. The interviews were conducted in person. The results showed the different views and expectations about the problem for each actor, which was very interesting to understand how the conflicts can start. In order to compare the public participation in other country a The Woburn Case in USA was reviewed. The main findings were: that the public participation is far from the proposed by the Convention, mainly regarding access to information and public participation. Regarding the access to justice, even though the Brazilian Justice be slow and costly, the points required by the Convention do exist. As a result of the findings the author proposed a suggestion of items introducing participation of the public to be inserted in a Law Project regarding Management of Contaminated Sites, in discussion nowadays at the São Paulo State Congress

Esta dissertação de mestrado tem como objetivo principal avaliar a participação pública em um caso de gestão de área contaminada no Estado de São Paulo. Para a busca do foco no desenvolvimento desta pesquisa, foram consideradas as três bases de sustentação da Convenção de Aarhus: o acesso à informação, a participação no processo decisório e o acesso à justiça. Esta Convenção foi escolhida por constituir um conjunto consistente de conceitos e recomendações sobre a participação pública em questões socioambientais. É conceituada a Convenção de Aarhus e são discutidos os preceitos das documentações desse acordo internacional, fazendo comparações com alguns autores. Para atender aos objetivos dessa dissertação, é aplicada uma metodologia de estudo de caso, avaliando e verificando se esta participação atende aos preceitos da Convenção, por meio de análise qualitativa. A pesquisa foi realizada por meio de entrevistas individuais com atores envolvidos no caso da Shell Vila Carioca: população do entorno da empresa, técnicos do sistema ambiental e da saúde, representantes do sistema jurídico, médico, jornalista, vereador, representante do terceiro setor e representante da empresa Shell. Foi realizado um paralelo do caso estudado no Brasil com Woburn, o caso de áreas contaminadas nos Estados Unidos que também teve grande repercussão na mídia. Os resultados mostraram as diferentes visões e expectativas de cada ator para o caso. Entre outros aspectos, conclui-se que a população não foi informada adequadamente pelos órgãos públicos, que a participação da população neste caso ainda está se iniciando e que existem mecanismos judiciais para o acesso à justiça, embora a maioria da população não os conheça. Como sugestão, a autora propõe a inserção da participação pública nas etapas do Projeto de Lei de Proteção da Qualidade do Solo e Gerenciamento de Áreas Contaminadas / The objective of this work is to evaluate the participation of the public at a contaminated site case in the State of São Paulo. The basis for the analysis was the three pillars established by the Aarhus Convention (right to access information, right of the public participation and right to access the justice). This tree pillar scheme is a consistent array of concepts regarding the public participation process in environmental matters. The concepts of the Convention were discussed under the view of several authors. To evaluate in the real world the use of the concepts of the CONVENTION a case study were performed: Vila Carioca Contaminated Site in the City of São Paulo. The methodology used were interviews with all main actors involved as local population, environmental state officials, journalist, public attorneys, NGO people, city council members and ,industry representative. The interviews were conducted in person. The results showed the different views and expectations about the problem for each actor, which was very interesting to understand how the conflicts can start. In order to compare the public participation in other country a The Woburn Case in USA was reviewed. The main findings were: that the public participation is far from the proposed by the Convention, mainly regarding access to information and public participation. Regarding the access to justice, even though the Brazilian Justice be slow and costly, the points required by the Convention do exist. As a result of the findings the author proposed a suggestion of items introducing participation of the public to be inserted in a Law Project regarding Management of Contaminated Sites, in discussion nowadays at the São Paulo State Congress

This thesis describes issues which occurring during the implementation of requirements of Aarhus convention. The Convention has unique character, as it combines the basic human rights with environmental rights. Since 2005 The European Union is signatory, which means that content of Convention is part of union law and falls within the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of European Union. The first chapter deals with the particular elements of the Aarhus convention. In the chapter two are described the consequences of accession to the Convention for European Union and her member states. The core of this thesis consists of chapters, 3-5, which in sequence analyzes, through selected court decisions, the most complicated provisions from the perspective of implementation and suggest certain tendencies in decision-making of the Court of Justice of The European Union. Among the most obvious belong differential treatment and claims on European and domestic bodies in executing the rights guaranteed by Aarhus convention. The final chapter suggests the overlap to the Czech regulation, concretely alerts at changes in decision-making and the legislature, which are among others strongly inspired by judgments of the CJ EU.