Empowering Through Law: Environmental NGOs as Regulatory Intermediaries in EU Nature Governance

Private ‘bottom-up’ enforcement has been central to the efforts of the European Union (EU) to promote effective compliance with its ambitious environmental laws. This approach is strengthened by the EU's implementation of the Aarhus Convention, which aims to democratize environmental enforcemen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transnational environmental law 2023-11, Vol.12 (3), p.469-497
Main Authors: Kingston, Suzanne, Alblas, Edwin, Callaghan, Micheál, Foulon, Julie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to information
Citizen participation
Compliance
Empowerment
Enforcement
Environmental information
Environmental law
Legislation
Litigation
NGOs
Nongovernmental organizations
Objectives
Public participation
Regulation
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Summary:Private ‘bottom-up’ enforcement has been central to the efforts of the European Union (EU) to promote effective compliance with its ambitious environmental laws. This approach is strengthened by the EU's implementation of the Aarhus Convention, which aims to democratize environmental enforcement by conferring citizens and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) with legal rights of access to environmental information, rights of public participation, and rights of access to justice (the so-called ‘Aarhus mechanisms’). This article empirically assesses the extent to which the Aarhus mechanisms empower ENGOs to take an active role in the private enforcement of the EU Habitats and Birds Directives. Based on 75 surveys and 30 interviews with ENGOs from three Member States (France, Ireland, the Netherlands), we apply regulatory intermediary theory to show how European ENGOs play a vital role in intermediating between (i) EU Member States and their citizens, (ii) the EU and individual citizens, and even (iii) the EU and its Member States. We bring new empirical insights into the role of law as an enabler of regulatory intermediaries, and its potential as a tool for orchestrating regulatory intermediaries.
ISSN:2047-1025
2047-1033
DOI:10.1017/S2047102523000109