Suchergebnisse

Teaching environmental law and climate change issues one may open a number of questions on relations between environmental protection, governmental duties and public rights, starting with: has a government duty to care and maintain a dissent environment and stable climate conditions?; what is a ground for governmental decision-making on actions threatening sustainability of the climate conditions?; where is the beginning and the end of the responsibility of an individual or of an country? The article outlines the elements that provide the criteria under which one may discus on whether it should be the court to force the government to act or should it be a parliament to set laws initiating actions to protect citizens and their human rights from irreversible climate change? The article points out the recent cases State of the Netherlands v. Urgenda Foundation (court decision from December 2019) and Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana v. USA (court decision from January 2020). In Urgenda, the court concerned questions: whether the Netherlands is obliged to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from its soil by at least 25% by the end of 2020 compared to 1990, whether the court can order the State to do so and whether the government is bound to protect human rights in climate crisis? In Juliana, a group of children between the ages of eight and nineteen filed suit against the federal government, claiming that the government violated their constitutional rights by causing dangerous carbon dioxide concentrations. Although the court had found the injury and evidence on causation between government's actions and climate crisis, it found a lack of redressability. The aim of the article is to examine if the concepts of European Green Deal presented on January 2019 by the Von der Leyen Commission to enshrine the 2050 climate neutrality target into life are in line with conclusions from analysed cases and lessons learned from COVID-19 crisis.

The paper analyses the status of international agreements in the field of air protection, aiming to interpret the discord between the adopted legal standards and their application. Having in mind the harmonisation process of Serbian law with the EU law, the author further analyzes the obligations of Member States arising from Directive 2008/50/EC on Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe, the developed practice of the CJEU which embodies elements determining the rights of individuals to initiate a procedure for protecting the right to a healthy environment if states do not adopt an air quality action plan, as well as the measures that domestic courts may prescribe to ensure the implementation of decisions establishing the obligation to implement measures for reduction of emissions above the limit values. The concluding sections analyse the degree of harmonisation of our positive law with the adopted standards and the environmental acquis. Having in mind a substantial number of cases related to air protection in the practice of the Serbian Protector of Citizens (Ombudsman), the analysis of the application of recommendations arising from these cases may suggest the degree of harmonisation of commitments and their application, and serve as an instrument for amending positive law.

Water is a resource with the capacity to generate power in many forms whether be it access to drinking water or use as hydropower or steam power to produce electricity. Renewable recourses open issues where environmental protection meets different requirements: to protect the quality and national potential of water, but to develop the use of emission-free hydropower; to strengthen constitutional and legal guaranties to access to water but to provide adequate type of rights to use hydropower. The right to use water for hydropower must be weighed with its impact on the quality and quantity of water courses. In comparative law we may find different approaches that should guarantee the right to water. The concept that the right to water might be protected only if water is recognized as a legal person (exercised in recent cases the Amazon River, Ganges and Yamuna rivers, Whanganui river) will be challenged with EU approach where measurement on different interests of environmental protection is the base for water protection. The article outline elements that provide minimum guarantees for including the both rights in decision-making process singled out in practice of jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The article points out the most important case under the Serbian Administrative Court on small hydropower licensing in 2018. The aim of the article is to examine if the conclusions from EU may be find in Serbian law and to suggest legal changes that could lead to full transposition of environmental acquis.

This paper analyzes the results of application and protection of the right of access to information on climate change achieved thus far. The paper aims to point out the basis of the legal nature of information on climate change in international law and environmental acquis. It determines if the legal framework regulating the right of access to environmental information in Serbia can be applied to access to information on climate change. The final section suggests possible means to overcome the shortcomings found in domestic and comparative law.