Professor Suzanne Kingston, PI on this project, has published an insightful paper inRevue
Européenne du Droit.The paper summarises Effective Nature Law’s work over the past 5 years, mapping the evolution and effectiveness of the EU’s environmental governance laws. The project examined the effectiveness of the EU’s nature governance laws in 3 Member States over 23 years from 1992-2015, using a variety of methodologies. The results detail practical ways in which nature governance law may be more effective. It also demonstrates new empirical ways to measure law’s impact which can be applied in other fields of regulation.

RED 3 – The Groundwork of European Power – Dec 2021

RED 3 – Les chemins de la puissance europeģenne – dec 2021

One of the main purposes of  the Aarhus Convention is to promote a wide access to justice in environmental matters for Environmental NGOs, with the aim of improving the enforcement of environmental laws. Based on qualitative research among 35 Dutch ENGOs, this article looks at the different factors that determine an ENGOs access to justice in practice. The article pays particular attention to the requirement under Dutch law to make a submission on a project plan, before an appeal can be made. The findings show, even though the Netherlands in many ways is a frontrunner in the implementation of Aarhus, both the access to justice itself as well as the effectiveness of taking legal proceedings are presently under pressure in the country.

Het Verdrag van Aarhus strekt onder andere tot het waarborgen van ‘ruime toegang’ tot de rechter bij milieuaangelegenheden voor milieuorganisaties, om hiermee de uitvoering en handhaving van milieuwetgeving te bevorderen. Op basis van bestaande theoretische literatuur en een kwalitatief onderzoek onder 35 Nederlandse milieuorganisaties analyseert dit artikel wat voor milieuorganisaties eigenlijk de factoren zijn die de toegang tot de rechter bepalen. Hierbij wordt specifiek aandacht besteed aan het vereiste om een zienswijze te hebben ingediend alvorens tegen een besluit in beroep kan worden gegaan. Het beeld dat uit de data naar voren komt is dat momenteel zowel de toegang tot de rechter als de doeltreffendheid van de rechtsgang bij milieuaangelegenheden onder druk staan.

Please click here for more: NJB27_Milieuorganisaties-in-beroep

It was with huge pride that we introduced the results of our 5-year empirical study, funded by the European Research Council, examining the effectiveness of the EU’s nature governance laws in three Member States over a 23-year period from 1992, the date of adoption of the EU’s flagship nature law, the Habitats Directive. Using novel and complementary methodologies, including the coding of over 6,000 nature governance laws, over 2000 surveys and interviews across France, Ireland and the Netherlands, and a behavioural economics lab experiment, we show how nature governance laws have evolved over time, how they have been used in practice, and how this has impacted landowners compliance decisions. Our findings point to practical ways in which nature governance laws might be made more effective – please see the Policy Makers Handbook – Effective Nature Laws for more.

Policy makers handbook – Effective nature law web_opt

We are delighted to announce the forthcoming publication ‘Magnetic law: Designing environmental enforcement laws to encourage us to go further’ in the next issue of Regulation and Governance. Professor Suzanne Kingston, Edwin Alblas, Mícheál Callaghan and  Julie Foulon have used empirical evidence gathered during 2000 surveys and over 150 interviews with stakeholders from three Member States – France, Ireland, and the Netherlands to capture the views of regulated parties, NGOs, and the general public on the EU’s ambitious and highly developed environmental laws especially the UNECE Aarhus Convention (1998). To read the article please click here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/rego.12416.

We are delighted to announce that team member, Dr. Zizhen Wang, ERC postdoctoral researcher, has published a paper in Irish Educational Studies. Drawing from research carried out for his PhD, Dr. Wang’s study investigates how different forms of social capital and job searching methods influence the incidence of overeducation among international students upon graduation in Ireland. While most studies have concentrated primarily on human capital factors in explaining overeducation among immigrant workers, this study emphasises the effect of bonding and bridging social capital, as well as different job searching channels, on the likelihood of overeducation among university international graduates.

The paper can be accessed:(opens in a new window)here.

Professor Suzanne Kingston (ERC Project leader) and Edwin Alblas (ERC researcher and PhD candidate) have published a chapter in ‘Private Regulation and Enforcement in the EU: Finding the Right Balance from a Citizen’s Perspective.’

Of the People, by the People, for the People? The European Union’s Experience with Private Environmental Regulation and Enforcement,examines whether the involvement of private actors in environmental regulation, for instance through private certification programs, is effective and desirable from a citizen’s, or whether more should be done to protect citizens’ interests.

The book can be purchased:(opens in a new window)here.

Huge congratulations to ERC researcher and PhD candidate Julie Foulon who has published an article in the prestigious Environmental Law Review journal.

Julie’s article analyzes the innovations and challenges of the recent provision to address ecological damage three years after its introduction into French civil law. The paper explains how the new regime proceeds to remedy ecological damage, as well as its key challenge – namely, that nature does not have a legal personality under the French legal system. This hurdle has traditionally prevented compensation for environmental loss being secured under tort law.

The article is available here: (opens in a new window)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461452919883441

We are delighted that team members Prof. Suzanne Kingston (project leader) and ERC researcher and PhD candidate Edwin Alblas have co-authored a chapter which is due to be published in L. Senden & M. de Cock Buning (eds.), ‘Private Regulation and Enforcement in the EU: finding the right balance from the citizens perspective’ (Forthcoming 2020, Hart publishing)

Prof. Kingston and Mr. Alblas’ chapter ‘Of the people, by the people, for the people? The European Union’s experience with private environmental regulation and enforcement,’ is now(opens in a new window)available on SSRN.

We are thrilled to announce that PhD candidate and Effective Nature Laws project researcher, Edwin Alblas, has published a book review in the Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law.

Edwin’s article reviews ‘Transnational Environmental Regulation and Governance: Purpose, Strategies and Principles,’ by Veerle Heyvaert, providing an illuminating analysis of Heyvaert’s seminal book, which charts transnational environmental regulation as a novel model of regulation.

Read Edwin’s article by registering or logging in:(opens in a new window)here.

On Friday October 18th, Prof. Suzanne Kingston participated in theEnforcing European Union Environmental Law conference in University College Cork, hosted by the Center for Law and the Environment at UCC.

The conference explored critical topics related to:

• an EU Commission perspective on environmental enforcement;
• enforcement of EU nature law;
• enforcing our right to clean air;
• private enforcement of EU environmental law including by means of litigation, where necessary;
• and the general outlook for environmental law enforcement in Ireland into the future.

Prof. Kingston presented on “Enforcement of EU Nature Law – Recent Developments.” 

Many thanks to the Center of Law and the Environment at UCC for organizing this important conference – follow their(opens in a new window)Twitter accountto keep up to date with upcoming events.

Prof. Suzanne Kingston will be participating in a conference“Sustainability and Competition Policy: 
Bridging two Worlds to Enable a Fairer Economy”in Brussels, Thursday October 24th.

The conference will examine the connection between competition law and sustainability, in line with an overall examination of how to align EU policies with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to fight against increasing social disparities and improve the wellbeing of people while remaining within the environment limits of the planet.

The conference will be live streamed – tune in(opens in a new window)here.

Professor Kingston will speak on a panel (at 3.40pm Irish time) entitled“The Way Forward: How Can Competition Policy Enable Rather Than Obstruct Sustainability?”

The panel discussion promises to be lively, and will delve into questions concerning:

• How can competition policy improve the way it delivers benefits to
  society? What are the pitfalls in considering competition policy in
  (relative) isolation from other policy fields?
• The question of inter-relationship between different fields of law, e.g.
  how did trade law incorporate environmental and other sustainability
  concerns and what about other fields of EU economic law? Is it fruitful
  to think in terms of hierarchy of sources of law, and what are the
  alternatives?
•  Can economics help, and how? E.g., how to (better) measure consumer
  benefits beyond price, thus including sustainability, environmental,
  public interest values? Is there scope for greater reliance on behavioural
  economics to recognise that consumers are also citizens who care about
  societal values?
• On the technical side, what is the most promising route to better factor
  in sustainability objectives in competitive assessments? What are the
  practical ways to advance: test cases, formal and informal opinions,
  guidelines enabling confident self-assessment, government mandated
  initiatives?

Many thanks to The European Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Fair Trade Advocacy Office, the Global Competition Law Centre of the College of Europe and the Center for Economics, Law and Society at University College of London, with the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development for organizing this conference.

From 26-28 June, the bi-annual ‘Land & Tuinbouwbeurs Oost Nederland’ (Agricultural convention East Netherlands) took place in Bathmen, NL. Four Dutch members of our team participated in the event to carry out surveys and interviews with farmers attending the event. With temperatures quickly hitting 30+ degrees on the first day of the convention, the first day was relatively quiet. Yet, farmers were willing to participate in our research project and, by doing so, help push our data collection forward. They were likely helped by the local delicacies provided at our stand! The subsequent two days were much more well-attended, giving us the chance to carry out surveys with, in total, 105 farmers, and conducting an additional 12 in-depth interviews with farmers attending the event. A big success!

In the weeks leading up to the event, Edwin Alblas, one of our PhD researchers working for the project, took the chance to visit several ENGOs across the country and interview directors and staff involved in the implementation and enforcement of EU nature rules. These in-depth interviews provide detailed and, for our research purposes, valuable accounts of the barriers that exist in the implementation and enforcement of our nature laws. Particular attention was paid here to the role of the Aarhus convention in the work of these organizations, embodying the procedural rights of access to environmental information, participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. New insights were gained regarding the barriers that currently still exist in exercising these rights, and ideas were shared as to how these barriers may be addressed. Rounding up this short account of our field work in the Netherlands, this 3,5 week trip can be called a major step forward in our data collection process. Next step: data analysis.

Four members of the Effective Nature Laws team attended the 2019(opens in a new window)Salon de l’Agriculture de Nouvelle Aquitaine, the second biggest agricultural festival in France, to complete surveys and interviews with French farmers. As the project is taking Ireland, France and the Netherlands as comparative studies, it was vital to include French farmers’ perspective on EU nature laws. In 2018, the ENL team attended the 2018 Ploughing Championships to hear Irish farmers’ views and experiences with environmental laws in practice.

The team travelled from Dublin to Bordeaux by rail and sail, landing in the city one day before the event started, and participated in the event from June 1^st– 3^rd.

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Crossing the English Channel to France.

We were very lucky to have the opportunity to share a stand with Bordeaux Sciences Agro, the national school of agricultural engineering in France. Farmers were offered a complimentary box of Butlers toffees for their time.

Surveys and interviews were carried out with farmers and breeders from all over France, though predominantly from the Nouvelle Aquitaine region. The region boasts over two hundred(opens in a new window)Natura2000 sites, making it an important region for the protection of habitats and species.

Farmers gave their opinions on the effectiveness of nature laws in France, and the roles of different actors in the implementation of these laws.

The team then travelled to Paris to interview the l’Agence Régionale de la Biodiversité, as another key actor in the governance of French environmental protection. The following day, the team interviewed the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux Normandie, and the France Nature Environnement – PACA. One team member is still in France, and will soon attend(opens in a new window)Les Assises Nationale de la Biodiversitéto meet with other environmental NGO’s and key stakeholders in environmental protection in France.

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Two team members at our stand, inviting farmers to give their opinions on nature laws through surveys and interviews.

Professor Suzanne Kingston participated in the fourth panel of the first annual Irish Supreme Court Review, where she presented her paper: ‘“Mallak-Plus”: The Emergence of an Enhanced Duty to Give Reasons in Connelly v An Bord Pleanála & ors [2018].’The paper deals with how the duty to give reasons for administrative decisions fits within the scope of Irish constitutional law and EU law.

The conference took place on October 6th 2018, and reflected on the role of the Supreme Court, discussing the top dozen or so leading cases of the Court’s 2017-2018 legal year. The conference was presented in association with Trinity College Dublin’s Centre for New Irish Studies, which is part of the Making Ireland research theme hosted by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute.

Professor Suzanne Kingston delivered the keynote lecture, ‘More Democracy Please? Reflections on the Democratic Turn in European Environmental Enforcement’, which was part of the Environmental Law stream, at the 108^th Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Conference.

The paper critically examined whether the move towards greater involvement of non-State actors in EU environmental governance, epitomised by the Aarhus Convention, is increasing the effectiveness of EU environmental law, and presented some initial findings of the ERC project on this issue.

For the first time in its 108 years, the SLS Annual Conference took place outside of the UK. It moved to the UCD Sutherland School of Law, Dublin in September 2017 under the stewardship of Professor Imelda Maher, Dean of the Sutherland School of Law and President of the Society 2016-2017. The Conference entitled  The  Diverse Unities of Law attracted over 470 international delegates who presented over 300 papers in 28 subject sections.

We wish to congratulate our colleague, Edwin Alblas, PhD scholar, for reaching the finals of the National PhD “Making an Impact” competition. This competition, organized by the Higher Education Authority and the Irish Independent, challenges young researchers to communicate their research to a lay audience and explain why it matters to society. At the event, which was held in Dublin City University (DCU), he got the opportunity to present the Effective Nature Law project’s goals and methods to an audience of about 400 secondary school students from across Ireland, as well as to a jury consisting of representatives from the HEA and the Independent.

The key message Edwin emphasised in his presentation was the need to protect nature more effectively by designing nature protection rules that actually work. One way in which he engaged with the audience was by introducing an Instagram photo competition for the students in the audience, asking them to post their best nature photo using the hashtag #effectivenaturelaws, with the chance to win free pizza. This Instagram competition – under the heading ‘sharing is caring’ – generated many positive responses.

Edwin’s achievement in reaching the national finals highlights the important impact that the ERC project seeks to make in improving the effectiveness of European nature laws in practice.

Three members of the Effective Nature Laws team attended the Irish Forum on Natural Capital Conference, ‘Making Nature Count’ in the National Concert Hall last Tuesday, 4^thof October 2016. Speakers at the conference hailed from many industries including private, public, NGO and academia and many disciplines such as, amongst others, the natural sciences, environmental economics and accountancy. Talks were given on the status of Natural Capital management not only in Ireland but in a number of countries throughout Europe. The day was highly informative about the role that Natural Capital can potentially play in improving the state of nature in Ireland. A key message of the closing panel discussion was that this potentially transformative agenda for Ireland is most likely to be achieved with the creation of an Irish Natural Capital Agency. The role of this agency would be to ensure there is strong communication between, diffusion of information throughout, and action across, all Irish industries in order to achieve the goals of the Irish Forum on Natural Capital’s agenda. For more information see:(opens in a new window)http://www.naturalcapitalireland.com/.

Last week, Geraldine Murphy had the pleasure of presenting work from the Effective Nature Laws project at the Sixth Biennial Conference of The Standing Group on Regulatory Governance of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). The conference, which was held in the University of Tilbrug in the Netherlands, is the leading interdisciplinary conference on regulation and regulatory governance held in Europe. Included in its programme was work that originated from all over the globe and that focussed on a wide range of disciplines including political science, law, accounting, business, sociology, economics, international relations, anthropology, public administration, and other related disciplines. Given its strongly interdisciplinary focus, the Effective Nature Laws project fit well into the theme of the conference. Our work will benefit greatly from the insights and comments of the attendees at the “Instruments of regulatory enforcement” session, as well as from the information obtained through the many intriguing papers, and presenters, at the conference.

As an interdisciplinary project – namely one that combines issues relating to environmental law with socio-economic methodologies – it seems fitting that the Effective Nature Laws team presented their work at the Geary Institute for Public Policy’s seminar series this Tuesday, 27^thof April. The presentation outlined our projected plans for the Effective Nature Laws project over the coming years. In particular we focussed on the fields of study covered, theoretical perspectives considered and methodologies envisioned.

The project is located at the intersection between the law and economics, socio-legal and governance/regulatory literatures, and brings together multiple methods from these fields to test its hypotheses. The Geary Institute is Ireland’s leading economic and social research establishment and so feedback from its expert staff proved invaluable for us. Specifically, they offered insights into better improving our leximetric, surveying, interviewing and experimental economic techniques during the course of the project. For this, we are grateful!

Dr. Geraldine Murphy

On Friday, 29^thof April, Effective Nature Laws hosted a methodology workshop in the UCD Sutherland School of Law, the aims of which were to stimulate debate and to gain feedback on the project’s theoretical and methodological frameworks to date. Participants came from an array of institutions and organisations throughout the EU, resulting in a remarkable richness of experience and expertise in attendance both from the biodiversity and broader environmental governance perspectives. This article provides a greatly edited overview of some of the topics discussed – a complete account of everyone’s contribution to the workshop would far exceed the word count capacity of this blog!

Proceedings were opened by Michael O’Briain, who set the context for the Effective Nature Laws project and highlighted its pertinence given that a Fitness Check is currently being conducted for the Habitat and Birds Directives by the European Commission.

Prof Colin Scott from UCD praised the sophistication of the Effective Nature Laws project and provided important insights into how we might account for different attitudes towards property rights and land ownership across the three jurisdictions.

A representative from Teagasc (The Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority) provided expertise in the areas of data collection and the evaluation of compliance.

Insight into the areas of French, and Dutch, law were contributed by Prof Michel Prieur from the University of Limoges, and Prof Chris Backes of Utrecht University, respectively. Both Prof Prieur and Prof Backes also gave their time generously prior to the workshop, providing the Effective Nature Laws team with invaluable information on compliance issues specific to both jurisdictions.

Dr Áine Ryall from University College Cork and representatives from the Department of Environment Community and Local Government, executed an interesting discussion about the role that the Aarhus Convention plays in Irish Law and how this may be measured. Delegates from the Irish National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) raised a number of issues relating to the role that the judiciary plays in enforcing Nature Laws and the importance of fostering local leadership towards compliance amongst landowners. A member from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) outlined how communication strategies are vital for improving compliance levels towards environmental law, citing how approaching the Irish Countrywomen’s Association greatly accelerated the effectiveness of the EPA’s septic tank strategy.

A representative from Birdwatch Ireland mentioned, amongst other things, how regulatees’ attitude towards, and level of awareness of, Nature Laws matter enormously with regard to compliance. Dr Andrew Jackson from UCD questioned whether we need to account for historical and political contexts during the course of the research, with Dr Ryall noting that the role of media in setting contexts cannot be undermined.

As is evident from above, the Effective Nature Law team now have plenty of food for thought regarding the future of the project. We would like to sincerely thank all who were involved. Your input will inform and enhance our study into the design of effective biodiversity governance laws over the coming years.

Dr. Geraldine Murphy & Hugh McDowell

A full list of attendees is set out below: