Scientific Monitoring of the Development of Access to Justice in Environmental Matters at the European, International and National Level in the 20th Legislative Period of the German Bundestag

The research project focuses on access to justice for associations in environmental matters under the German Environmental Appeals Act (UmwRG). Since 2006, the UmwRG has regulated the conditions under which recognised environmental associations can have environmental decisions reviewed by German courts. After a comprehensive amendment in 2017, the UmwRG is expected to be amended again at the end of 2024.

In this three-year research project, the legal actions of recognised environmental associations in Germany in the years 2021 to 2023 will be comprehensively monitored from a legal perspective and analysed and evaluated on the basis of empirical data. In addition to developments in litigation and the environmental associations filing lawsuits, the duration of judicial decision-making procedures and the effects of the elimination of material preclusion will also be analysed from a legal and empirical perspective. Specific issues related to the lodging of appeals will also be analysed.

European and international law determine the scope of access to justice in environmental matters in Germany. By signing the Aarhus Convention, Germany undertook to implement the guarantees of legal protection and participation contained therein. The implementation of these obligations under international law in national law, in particular in the existing system of administrative legal protection, has been criticised several times in the past by the European Court of Justice and the bodies of the Aarhus Convention as inadequate.

The most recent amendment to the UmwRG, which came into force in mid-2017, was designed to implement rulings by the European Court of Justice and the Conference of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention and to provide environmental organisations with access to justice in accordance with the requirements of the Aarhus Convention and the ECJ. The German Bundestag also adopted a resolution calling on the German government to report on its practical experience in implementing the amendment.

Events organised as part of the project

As part of the research project, the “Forum Umweltrechtsschutz 2023” (Forum on Environmental Law Protection 2023) and the “Symposium zur umweltrechtlichen Verbandsklage 2024” (Symposium on Environmental Class Action 2024) were held. Detailed documentation of these events can be found on the event pages below.

Previous project on access to justice in environmental matters

During the last legislative period, the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU), also commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), investigated open questions regarding the impact of legal actions by associations in environmental protection and nature conservation for the period of 2017 to 2020. On the basis of these studies and the UfU’s many years of empirical research on representative actions, as well as the accompanying legal studies, the aim is to provide as complete a picture as possible of the respective practices in the 20th legislative period, in order to enable legislators and the (specialist) public to make appropriate assessments, conclusions and judgements.