Enviromental law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Enviromental law - Essay Example The government in Europe typically establishes the performance regulations for polluters which allow them purchase licenses. The polluters who lack to comply with the set law and conditions put in their licenses can be prosecuted or face the civil punishment. Although the control and command approach is usually important, the limitations are apparently increasing. It depends its effectiveness on standard bodies which can be under-financed or inefficient. The environmental goals are normally set with no proper contemplation of economic costs1. Command and control strategies are poorly equipped to cater for the highly compound issues. They lack to respond nicely with public concerns. Thus, it calls for growing interest in more flexible approaches which are reflexive for environmental protection. These include laws and policies which enhance for self-regulation. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the most crucial example for this new approach. The main idea concerning the environmental impact assessment relates to when a project has the probability of having serious environmental consequences which can be scrutinized before establishment of development. That is fundamentally a two stage process. The first stage deals with gathering and analysis of crucial information. The developer then prepares or commissions from the environmental consultant an environmental statement which describes the possible environment effects of development. Theoretically, this should be objective and accurate. Depending on Donald Mc Gillivray and Stuart Bell, the two British environmental lawyers, the ideas of EIA would include a completely biased free information kind of collation produced in a manner which would be sound, coherent and complete. Realistically, the environmental statements given on behalf of developers are usually biased and of low quality. This indicates why countries like Czech Republic and Croatic have come up with accreditation systems used by consultants responsible for such preparations. If the development is contradictory, more reports can be produced by pressure groups, private individuals and government agencies. The report can be commissioned via planning authorities. The second stage involves the assessment of that information by appropriate planning authority. The authority should take the probable environmental impacts into responsibility before coming with a decision whether or not to allow the development. The environmental impact assessment is principally a procedural mechanism. The authority may involve economic benefits of a project which could overshadow the environmental harm which is likely to result. But it cannot allow development without giving proper consideration to the concerned environmental implications. The history of Environmental Impact Assessment In Europe, Germany and France in 1975 and 1976 respectively, were the primary countries to introduce the EIA requirements. The suggestion aroused strong challenge though the EIA directive was expected in the European Community's Second Action Programmed on Environment in 1977. After eight years of strong debate, this came into action in July 1988 and has been edified. The EIA necessities were then introduced by many of the European EC and non-EC countries. Almost all the developed counties now currently the mandatory environmental