1st Edition

Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in the European Union The Espoo Convention and its Kiev Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment

Edited By Simon Marsden, Timo Koivurova Copyright 2011

    This book examines 'The Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context', which celebrates the twentieth anniversary of its adoption in 2011, and its 'Kiev Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment' which came into force in July 2010. In addition to contributing to international environmental law, the Convention has prompted significant changes to European environmental law.

    The chapters in this collection explain the role of transboundary environmental impact assessment in international and European law, and explore the relationship between international and European law in the context of potential application of the Convention. They also examine examples of the Convention in practice, and consider the potential application of the Protocol. While the focus of the book is on the situation in the European Union, reference is made to the relationship between EU and non-EU member states, notably in connection with important cases in the Arctic, the Danube Delta and the Baltic Sea.

    1. Introduction  Part 1: International and European Law  2. Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in International Law  3. Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in European Law  Part 2: The Relationship between International and European Law  4. The Case of Vuotos: Interplay between International, Community and National Environmental Law (2004) 13(1) Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 47-60  5. MOX Plant and the Espoo Convention: Can Member State Disputes Concerning Mixed Environmental Agreements be Resolved outside EC Law? (2009) 18(3) Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 312-327  6. Enforcing Non-Discrimination in Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment: Advantages for EU Citizens from the Transposition of the Espoo and Aarhus Conventions?, (2009) 6(4) Journal for European Environmental and Planning Law 437-460  Part 3: Convention Practice  7. Transboundary EIA: Iberian Experiences (2006) 26 Environmental Impact Assessment Review 614-632  8. Transboundary Environmental Assessment in the Arctic (2008) 26(4) Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 265-275  9. Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in the Case of the Baltic Sea Gas Pipeline (2010) 25 The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 151-181 Part IV - Protocol Law and Potential  10. SEA and Sustainability in Europe: How Bright is the Future? (2005) 14(1) Review of European Community & International Environmental Law 50-62  11. The SEA Directive and SEA Protocol Adapted to Spatial Planning: Similarities and Differences (2006) 26(6) Environmental Impact Assessment Review 586-599  12. The Institutional Context for Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in Belgium: Multi-Level Setting – A Matter of Smooth Governance? (2008) 26(4) Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 277-288  Appendices  1. Text of Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context done at Espoo, Finland on 25 February 1991  2. Text of Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context done at Kiev, Ukraine on 21 May 2003.

    Biography

    Simon Marsden is an Associate Professor at Flinders Law School in Australia, previously at the Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2007-2010). Simon specializes in strategic and transboundary approaches to environmental impact assessment, and the relationship between legal systems. Timo Koivurova is Research Professor and Director of the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland in Finland. He has specialized in various aspects of international law applicable in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.