2009 Press Releases

Environmental Law Conference
22.04.2009

The body of environmental and planning rules applying to potentially harmful activities and major development projects continues to grow in terms of its complexity and the scope of its coverage, thus increasing the burden on businesses and other factors in complying with and enforcing these rules and regulations.
 However, there is also concern that access to justice for ordinary citizens is being restricted in relation to environmental issues.  At the same time, the costs of taking a legal challenge to Governmental plans or decisions on environmental or planning grounds and, therefore, the financial risks for a private person or a local environmental pressure group have become prohibitive.  

States throughout Europe are struggling to identify effective legal responses to the causes of and threats posed by imminent climate change, with detailed policies beginning to emerge in respect of several sectors, such as transport and energy.   Also, the Government is currently in the process of introducing legislation to implement the EC Environmental Liability Directive, which requires Ireland to establish a comprehensive set of rules to ensure that those operators who cause a wide range of types of environmental damage are made to pay the full costs of remediating that damage.  As always, the enforcement of environmental rules presents a number of critical challenges for regulatory agencies and a range of possible approaches are available for strengthening compliance.  In addition, the European Community has recently adopted a Directive on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, which creates a common set of environmental offences throughout the Community which are to be punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties.  This is the first time ever that the Community has interfered with the national criminal laws of Member States.  

According to Dr Owen McIntyre of the Faculty of Law, UCC: “achieving political agreement on the adoption of the Directive on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law marks a fundamental shift in the position of Member States in respect of the Community’s criminal competence generally, as the Member States had previously taken active steps to clarify the criminal competence remains exclusively with them.”
 
These are just some of the issues which will examined at the seventh annual ‘Law and the Environment’ conference tomorrow, Thursday, April 23rd at UCC. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr John Gormley TD, will attend the conference and address delegates.

The Environmental Law Group based within the Faculty of Law at UCC is involved in leading-edge research in all aspects of environmental law and regulation and is a recognised centre of excellence in this area, both nationally and internationally. In addition, it plays a key role in developing understanding of environmental issues in Ireland by providing a national forum which brings together legal practitioners, regulators, policy-makers, environmental NGOs and business interest groups, senior managers from industry and the utilities, as well as academics, with an interest in environmental law and policy.

Aimed at a wide range of environmental professions, the conference will explore a broad selection of topics and will involve presentations by leading experts in the field of environmental law from Ireland and beyond.  This year’s programme involves a total of 15 presentations scheduled and arranged into five specialist sessions.  These include sessions on Legal Responses to Climate Change, Environmental Enforcement, Environmental Liability, Infrastructure and Waste Management, which include presentations on a range of key issues impacting upon environmental governance in Ireland today.  The conference builds on the success of similar events held over the last six years and it is now the pre-eminent event in the Irish Environmental Law calendar.  Several hundred lawyers and other professionals are expected to attend and it is intended once again to provide a unique platform for the practical and informal exchange of views on this rapidly developing area of law.

Full conference details available at: http://www.ucc.ie/law/events

1063MMcS

 



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