Environmental Law
Quarries
The Minister has issued guidelines to the planning authorities on quarries. The guidelines emphasise that âregistrationâ? does not authorise an unauthorised development.
Locus Standi (3)
In typical form SCALIA J dissented. In his view, regardless of the importance of the issue, the Court should not attempt to second guess the view of the executive agency (EPA) in light of its experience and judgment.
Locus Standi (2)
Locus Standi (âstandingâ?) expresses the obligation on a litigant to show (s)he has an interest in the subject matter of the dispute in legal proceedings.
Irish Planning and Development
It is not clear that the true history of Irish land development has been written.
Let them eat chocolate!
What is the difference between poisoning the populace with dirty water and poisoning the populace with dirty chocolate?
Ireland and the Aarhus Convention
Ireland is in fact a signatory to the Aarhus Convention. The European Union is also a signatory. Consequently, EU environmental law is already driving the âimplementationâ? of the Convention.
The Environment
It’s time to change the name of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). An agency that, as it says itself, permits and licences [polluting] activities should not hold itself out as a protecting body. True, the Office of Environmental Enforcement is part of the EPA, but it ought not to be, for many reasons, not least in the light of what we read in the report of Case C-494/01, (Commission of the European Communities v Ireland) ( a case concerning 12 […]
Pollution and Baby-talk
What is there to be usefully said about the pollution of the Galway city public drinking water supply?
Drinking Water; a brief Modern History
The European Commission proposed legislation in 1975 to secure clean drinking water for the people of Europe (well, the member States of the EU, anyway). This proposal resulted in the passing of Directive 80/778 EEC. The member States were given five years to bring their systems into compliance. None saw any reason to seek a derogation or extension of time. Events showed that they were not very pressed to comply with the Directive, although they were legally obliged to comply; […]
“Projects” and the Environment
Under EU law, action and initiative by a developer must await the completion of assessment of the âprojectâ?.