In the second edition of his monograph Enforcement of EU Environmental Law: Legal Issues and Challenges (Routledge), Senior Law Lecturer at Kent Law School Martin Hedemann-Robinson reveals that much remains to be done to ensure proper implementation of EU environmental legislation.
Spanning three parts, the book casts a critical eye over the principal modes of EU environmental law enforcement, namely: the role of the European Commission, possibilities for private law enforcement, and the role of national authorities.
Martin says: ‘Without their proper enforcement, governmental commitments to improving the state of the environment are prone to remain but ‘greenspeak’. Over the last 40 years and more, the European Union has developed a raft of legislation intended to enhance standards to protect the environment.
‘Whilst the EU has made progress in certain areas, there remains much to do in order to ensure that the Union’s legal framework is properly suited to assist in ensuring the proper implementation of EU environmental legislation, particularly with regard to access to environmental justice and national authority environmental law enforcement work (such as inspections).’
Earlier this year, in March, Martin delivered a presentation concerning the evolution of EU law on the enforcement of Union environmental law to a conference on ‘Effective Environmental Law Enforcement’ at University College London.
Martin said: ‘In my paper I prefaced my analysis by underlining the importance of recognising that continuing challenges arise on account of patchy or otherwise poor records of compliance by a number of EU member states of Union environmental legislation. This problem is perhaps most starkly illustrated by a 2011 study completed by the environmental consultancy COWI for the European Commission which estimated that the annual cost of non-compliance with the EU’s environmental acquis is approximately £50bn.’
Martin’s current research interests lie primarily in the areas of European Union and International Environmental Law, notably in relation to law enforcement.
He is a member of the Editorial Board for environmental law journal Environmental Liability. He is also a member of the Society of Legal Scholars, the United Kingdom Association of Environmental Law and The Law Society.
For more information about Martin’s research interests and publications, visit his staff profile page.