Taking Stock of Environmental Assessment: Law, Policy and Practice

by Holder; Jane

• ISBN13: 9781844721016
• ISBN10: 1844721019
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-14
• Publisher: Cavendish Pub Ltd

Summary

Environmental assessment is a process for predicting the likely effects of a proposed project, plan, or policy on the environment prior to a decision being made about whether these should proceed. Through the regulation of this process, law is now commonly engaged in dilemmas about the appropriate balance between conservation and development, as well as the place for participation and popular protest. The main aim of this edited collection is to analyse this engagement. The book will locate the current state of environmental assessment law and account for significant developments, including the extension of environmental assessment to monitor the impact of plans and programmes (strategic environmental assessment) as well as the more familiar form of environmental impact assessment (of projects). The collection will also contain broader theoretical approaches and will be reflective and contextual. In particular, key features of modern environmental assessment provides a focal point for examining the relationship between law, environmental governance and the regulation of decision making. In terms of subject matter, individual chapters will discuss the development of EIA in international law and the United States, the development and use of environmental impact assessment by the European Commission, the UN/ECE, and NGOs.

Table of Contents

List of contributors and biographical details	p. vii
Preface	p. xi
Taking stock	p. 1
Environmental assessment: dominant or dormant?	p. 17
NEPA and the curious evolution of environmental impact assessment in the United States	p. 45
Better Regulation in Europe	p. 65
The development of environmental assessments at the level of the European Union	p. 131
Substance and procedure under the strategic environmental assessment directive and the water framework directive	p. 149
Access to justice and the EIA directive: the implications of the Aarhus Convention	p. 191
Bringing environmental assessment into the digital age	p. 219
The prospects for ecological impact assessment	p. 259
Index	p. 285
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.