Review of Legal Indicators for the Participation Principle in Environmental Matters: Promotion of an International Cooperation towards Strengthening the Environmental Democracy

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26220501
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: New fields of law
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: DATE(OKUBO) Noriko (大久保規子) 大阪大学, 法学研究科, 教授 (00261826)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 横山 彌生 (礒野彌生) 東京経済大学, 現代法学部, 客員研究員 (60104105) ; 高村 ゆかり 東京大学, 国際高等研究所(UTIAS), 教授 (70303518) ; 柳 憲一郎 明治大学, 法学部, 専任教授 (80132752)
• Research Collaborator: AWAJI takehisa ; TAKAHASHI shigeru ; OTSUKA tadashi ; TERANISHI shun'ichi ; HASEGAWA koichi ; Kobayashi hikaru ; ISHINO kouya ; DENG haifeng ; SITDHIWEI chacrit ; FAJRINI rika ; EISMA-OSORIO rose-liza ; DUTTA ritwick ; SAKUMOTO naoyuki ; TANIUCHI kumiko ; DARPO jan ; STEC stephen ; WAJJWALKU siriporn ; RAMOS gloria estenzo ; WANG jin ; WANG canfa ; BOHM monika ; PRIEUR michel ; MAUERHOFER Volker
• Project Period (FY): 2014-05-30 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 環境法 / 行政法 / 環境民主主義 / 市民参加 / 環境公益訴訟 / 指標 / SDGｓ / アジア

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Conventional comparative researches on participation legislation do not necessarily reflect the exact extent which the law contributes to protect citizen’s rights or develop an environmental democracy. Indicators assessing the actual performance of the law are essential to enhance Participation Principle effectiveness. This research focuses on elaborating international legal performance indicators on Participation Principle in environmental law.
Most European countries have ratified the Aarhus Convention and the Latin-American and Caribbean countries have recently adopted own regional agreement on public participation. In contrast, there have been no remarkable movements in Asia until now neither to ratify the Aarhus Convention nor to make its own regional instrument. Therefore, it is especially useful in Asian region to analyze and discuss the common characteristics and issues of each system based on same indictor to accelerate reform process and to share its good practices.

Free Research Field

法学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

環境分野の参加原則（情報アクセス，決定への参加，司法アクセス）は持続可能な発展に不可欠であるが，具体的制度は国により多様である。法的指標は，各国の制度の有効性や進捗度をはかり，国際比較をするために有用であり，本研究ではアジア7カ国の特徴や日本の課題が明確になった。指標に基づく評価結果の活用により，各国のグッドプラクティスの共有や制度改革が促進され，環境民主主義の強化に寄与することが期待される。