Journal Articles

Information Disclosure and Environmental Rights: The Aarhus Convention

---

Access to information is the first “pillar” of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (1998). This article examines how the information disclosure obligations on states within the Aarhus Convention express a particular blend of human environmental rights, conjoining procedural entitlements (and duties) with a substantive right to an environment adequate to human health and well-being. “Aarhus environmental rights” have been lauded for increasing citizen access to environmental information, helping to secure more transparent and accountable regulatory processes. However, the information rights are rendered inconsistent in practice by three properties: 1) the discretion accorded to Convention Parties in interpreting Aarhus rights; 2) the exclusion of private entities from mandatory information disclosure duties; and 3) the indeterminate coupling of procedural and substantive rights. These tensions reflect a structural imbalance in the articulation of Aarhus rights between social welfare and market liberal perspectives.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

Global Environmental Politics

Call Number

-

Publisher

Cambridge : MIT Press., 2010

Collation

-

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

15263800

Classification

-

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

Vol. 10, No. 3, August 2010. Pages 10-31

Subject(s)

Environmental rights

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment