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Tanzi, Attila --- "Controversial Developments in the Field of Public Participation in the International Environmental Law Process" [2008] ELECD 148; in Dupuy, Pierre-Marie; Vierucci, Luisa (eds), "NGOs in International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: NGOs in International Law

Editor(s): Dupuy, Pierre-Marie; Vierucci, Luisa

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847205605

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Controversial Developments in the Field of Public Participation in the International Environmental Law Process

Author(s): Tanzi, Attila

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

4. Controversial developments in the
field of public participation in the
international environmental law
process
Attila Tanzi1

ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE AND THE ROLE
OF NON-STATE ACTORS
The protection and preservation of the environment is certainly one of the
areas in which the traditional regulatory power of nation-states faces chal-
lenges more difficult than in others. Since environmental issues can hardly be
confined within the national borders of one state, domestic legislation, as such,
may never tackle appropriately transboundary issues and, even more so, global
environmental problems, such as climate change. Furthermore, domestic regu-
latory constraints in this field may be easily circumvented, particularly in the
current context of globalization, by transferring polluting activities to states
with lower standards of environmental protection.
Such considerations account for the fact that, since its inception, environ-
mental law has always had a primarily international vocation. Through inter-
national environmental law, states create and undertake obligations in relation
to issues that may have, not only a transboundary impact (for example in the
use, management and protection of international rivers and lakes) but also a
global relevance, that is with regard to the atmosphere, or biodiversity. This
internationalization of the individual states' regulatory powers has attracted
the attention of those actors that for a long time have not been involved in
international law making and enforcement, and whose interests are most
directly affected by environmental policies. On the one hand, one finds the so-
called PINGOs (public interest NGOs), who are supposed to represent the ...