bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
REACH, a New Approach to Chemicals Regulation in Europe: a Brief History, Key Features, and Expected Outcomes
Authors: Warhurst A. Michael 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThe European Union has been regulating aspects of the production and use of chemicals since the late 196os. In the late 199os it was realised that this network of regulations had not resulted in the provision of adequate safety information on the chemicals used everyday in the EU, and also it did not function efficiently, for example in controlling uses of problematic substances. A review was launched, which led to the creation of the REACH - Regulation, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals"- a new integrated approach to chemical regulation in Europe. The REACH proposal obliges chemical producers to provide safety data on the substances they sell, and makes a number of other changes to chemicals management, including the creation of a new authorisation system for dealing with chemicals with properties of very high concern. The REACH proposal is now being finalised in the co-decision process, and it is currently estimated that it will enter into force in 2007.
Forming Consortia for REACH Registration: Contractual and Competition Law Issues
Authors: Rosenfeld Andreas , Scheidmann Hartmut 
Published: July 2010

AbstractIn order to reduce costs for industry and authorities, the Commission's proposal for a REACH Regulation of 29 October 2003 strongly supports the forming of consortia for the registration of about 30,000 substances subject to registration requirements. This article examines contractual issues to be observed when forming and operating consortia based on the REACH Proposal. Many of those issues risk provoking conflicts with European competition law which prohibits agreements between competitors objecting to or effecting the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the common market. The article examines these competition law issues and demonstrates that, given the potentially great number of consortia, there is a need for guidance in the form of a notice of the Commission in order to reduce the risk of an infringement of competition law.
REACH Meets Business: Lessons Learned in REACH Impact Assessments
Authors: Jostmann Thomas , Kistenbruegger Lothar 
Published: July 2010

AbstractImpact assessments and strategic partnerships for testing a legislative proposal under real life conditions are very important elements in the legislative process to support the initiative of the European institutions for "better law making". Identifying the mechanisms and the impact of a new legislative act on those parties directly affected by it should not only be used as facile justification "ex post" but as a tool to check the workability and effectiveness of the proposed legal text. Timing and composition of the working group managing the project are crucial success factors to achieve better understanding of the applicability and the potential effects on social, ecological and economical aspects. A firm commitment of all involved parties is essential to avoid seriously conflictive discussions and controversial communication to the public which basically undermines the good work commenced on common ground. However, transparency in the entire process does not guarantee a common interpretation of the final results.
The Organisation of Waste Management in the European Union Member States
Authors: Bree Axel 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThe organisation of waste management raises an important question: Who has access to waste - the public waste management services or private waste management companies ? The answer has important economic consequences, since waste management is a significant market. At the same time, environmental concerns have to be observed. The framework legislation of the European Community leaves the organisational structure of waste management to the national legislation of the Member States. However, under Community legislation waste is subject to the principle of the free movement of goods, which may be restricted on environmental grounds. Furthermore EU law draws a distinction between waste for disposal, for which shipment can be restricted more easily, and waste for recovery, which is subject to less stringent control procedures. Given the broad European framework, this article explores the national legislation in most EU countries. It aims to analyse the approach taken by the national legislators to find a way between public service and private autonomy. In conclusion, it seems clear that in the countries examined an important distinction is made between household and industrial waste. Only Germany has adopted the European distinction between waste for recovery and waste for disposal as a major criterion for the allocation of the waste streams between public and private entities, whereas in the other Member States this criterion only plays an insignificant, if any, role at all.
The Current State of Waste Management in Denmark and Related Legal Issues
Authors: Eskesen Lotte 
Published: July 2010

AbstractOver the last decade, waste management in Denmark has gradually become more influenced by EU legislation. Historically, the responsibility for the collection, management and disposal of waste lies with the local municipalities. The disposal of waste is regarded as a public task and Danish citizens, householders and business undertakings are obliged to deliver their waste to those recipients designated by the municipalities1.
A Qualitative Evaluation of Current Transposition and Implementation Practice of the SEA Directive in EU Member States
Authors: Zagorianakos Efthymis 
Published: July 2010

AbstractBefore 21 July 2004, the Member States of the European Union (EU) were obliged to specify the type of plans and programmes that according to the provisions of the Council Directive on the Assessment of the Effects of Certain Plans and Programmes on the Environment (or SEA Directive) had to undertake a systematic assessment of their effects on the environment. The uniformity of assessment procedures is a target that might be proved difficult to be attained by Member States with different planning procedures, cultures and environmental assessment traditions. The text that follows detects the transposition difficulties and opportunities by evaluating current SEA practice throughout the EU. The purpose is to provide an updated picture and suggest a generic guide for future initiatives aiming at successful implementation outcomes. This is especially relevant and hopefully helpful in view of the forthcoming Commission's first report on the application of the SEA Directive expected before 21 July 2006.
Overview of the Development of EU Soil Policy: towards a EU Thematic Strategy for Soil I Protection
Authors: Olazábal Claudia 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThe European Commission is at the last stages of preparing a strategy to ensure that Europe's soils remain healthy and capable of supporting human activities and ecosystems. Soil is essential to our economic activities as it provides us with food, drinking water, biomass and raw materials - and all our human activities are somehow related to soil. But soil degradation is accelerating across the EU, with negative effects on human health, ecosystems and climate change - and on our economic prosperity and quality of life. To reverse this trend, the Commission's strategy will set a common EU framework for action to preserve, protect and restore soil, but leaving Member States flexibility to implement it in a way which fits local situations best. The Thematic Strategy on soil protection will comprise a Communication and a legislative proposal which might require Member States to tackle threats such as landslides, contamination, erosion, organic matter decline, compaction, salinisation and sealing wherever they occur, or threaten to occur, on their national territories. The Soils Strategy is number six of seven Thematic Strategies that the Commission is presenting, in accordance with the 6th Environmental Action Programme.
Soil Protection in French Environmental Law
Authors: Bourgoin Frédéric 
Published: July 2010

AbstractIn France the absence of a comprehensive soil protection system was in part compensated by public policies issued by the Ministry for Environment and environmental authorities. The effect of these policies was to establish pollution prevention and monitoring criteria as well as public registers for (potentially) polluted industrial sites. The industrial regime (Installations Classées pour la Protection de l'Environment, 'ICPE') has been a key instrument in the development of soil protection, not only in the context of prevention but also in terms of liability for soil contamination which, in the absence of specific legislation, has relied on other liability regimes. The last fifteen years has also seen a rash of often contradictory case law, in particular concerning the definitions of liable persons and remediation levels. However, these definitions, in particular concerning liable persons, appear to have been settled by recent case law.
Soil Protection Law in Ireland
Authors: McIntyre Owen 
Published: July 2010

AbstractIn the absence of Community rules relating to soil contamination and protection, the Irish authorities have neglected to legislate for this issue. While a few common law tortious grounds of action and certain statutory regimes may be applicable to particular cases of soil contamination, their application is arbitrary and piecemeal, depending, for example, on the type of operation originally causing the contamination, on the extent of understanding of the problem at that time, on the nature of its related adverse effects, or on plans for the future use or development of the contaminated site. One particular lacuna in the coverage of the relevant Irish law relates to the problem of historical soil contamination, for which the Irish authorities have felt unable to legislate on account of a constitutional prohibition on retrospective liability. This paper seeks to set out the possible application of existing Irish rules to the problem of historical soil contamination and to highlight the shortcomings inherent therein. It also outlines the non-legislative solutions employed by Irish lawyers in the face of such legal uncertainty. It then goes on to examine the likely impacts of recent key developments, including the 2004 decision of the European Court of Justice in the Van de Walle case and the entry into force of the 2004 Environmental Liability Directive.
A Slow Train Coming? Soil Protection Law and Policy in the UK
Authors: Bell Stuart 
Published: July 2010

AbstractSoil is the Cinderella of environmental media. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has suggested that soil protection has been taken for granted by policy and law makers and that soil quality has not been given the same priority as air or water quality. After many years of neglect, we have arrived at something of a crossroads in terms of soil protection policy. Various policy documents have emerged which seek to place soil protection on a higher level of importance. The simple aim of this article is to locate the UK's position on soil protection in the context of the wider framework which is emerging at a European level. The article concludes that whilst there has been a recognition for some years that an integrated soil protection policy is needed in the UK, the progress towards producing such a policy has been painfully slow, fragmented and unproductive partly as a result of a lack of basic information on soil and the incoherent nature of the administration of soil protection.
Soil Protection Law and Reclaiming Soil Decontamination Costs in the Netherlands
Authors: Mellenbergh Rik 
Published: July 2010

AbstractDutch legislation with respect to soil protection and soil decontamination changed recently. Under the new legislation, the duty to decontaminate historical contamination of industrial sites in the Netherlands will rest on the owner or long-lessee of the industrial site, regardless whether the owner or long-lessee is the polluter. Besides, the new legislation focuses on a functional soil reclamation approach, instead of a multifunctional approach. In this article, a general overview of Dutch soil protection and liability law is given. Moreover, some (recent) European developments regarding soil protection and their possible effect on current Dutch soil protection legislation are discussed.
German Soil Protection Law
Authors: Kohls Malte 
Published: July 2010

AbstractA uniform federal soil protection act has not been adopted until 1998.1 The Act primarily focuses on the clean-up of inherited pollution and contains only few preventive regulations concerning soil protection. Preventive instruments are predominantly integral parts of other laws. This article gives a review of the structure of the soil protection law in Germany and introduces the core regulations of the Federal Soil Protection Act. Furthermore, the article discusses the issue of liability for inherited pollution according to German civil law.
Superfund and Brownfields: Evol ution of Federal Cleanup Law i n the US
Authors: MacCourt Douglas C. 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThe Comprehensive Environmental, Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, also known as CERCLA or 'Superfund' was enacted by the US Congress in 1980 in response to public concern over the effect of abandoned hazardous waste sites. Perhaps most well known as the US Environmental Protection Agency's primary authority for responding to contaminated properties, CERCLA created one of the broadest liability schemes in the history of US civil law. Following the federal government's lead, most of the 50 US states enacted their own cleanup laws in the 1980's. The states then took the lead in amending those laws in the 1990's in response to the brownfields redevelopment movement. Both CERCLA and the state laws patterned after CERCLA focus on liability for owners, operators and others associated with contaminated sites, the process for investigating and cleaning up those sites, and the contribution or recovery of cleanup costs from liable parties. This article briefly summarizes the basic function of CERCLA and how the 2002 Brownfields Amendments to CERCLA changed federal cleanup law in the US.
Trade and Environment: Looking beneath the Sands of Doha?
Authors: Halle Mark 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThis article offers a rapid history of environmental concern in the GATT and WTO systems. It focuses in particular on the environmental issues that are currently under negotiation in the Doha Round, and then reviews how key environmental issues are at play in other areas of negotiation. It looks also at the way in which environment has been taken into account in the regular work of the WTO, and especially by the Appellate Body. Finally, it suggests that recent political shifts in the WTO may provide greater scope for considering environmental perspectives in future.
The Role of Compliance in the Rule of Law, Good Governance, and Sustainable Development
Authors: Higdon Thomas , Zaelke Durwood 
Published: July 2010

AbstractLinks among compliance, rule of law, and good governance are essential and indivisible, although not sufficient alone to achieve sustainable development. Compliance with environmental and sustainable development requirements can be improved by understand ing and applying the two main theoretical approaches: logic of consequences, and logic of appropriateness. Compliance can be improved more by combining the two approaches. Further work to disaggregate both the State and the firm, and to understand the role of biases, heuristics, and framing in actor's compliance calculations, remains to be done and promises important insights. Environment policy is one of the success stories of the European Union - thanks to European Union legislation we have made significant improvements such as cleaner air and safer drinking water. But we still face some real problems.' Margot Wallstrbm, former EU Commissioner for the Environment
Commission Compliance Promotion and Enforcement in the Field of the Environment
Authors: Cashman Liam 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThe article looks at trends and directions since 1996 in Commission policy concerning the promotion and enforcement of European environmental legislation. It places these in their wider context and sets out some relevant statistics for the period 2000-2006. It refers to a 2002 Commission communication as setting out some of the organising principles for Commission enforcement work, offering several examples of how strategic in nature enforcement action has tended to become. It outlines salient features of policy on the use ofArticle 228 to enforce European Court of Justice judgments and touches on the relationship between complaint-handling and the pursuit of core implementation deficits, before presenting some general conclusions.
Taking Advantage of Flexibility in Implementing EU Environmental Law
Authors: Farmer Andrew , Kettunen Marianne , ten Brink Patrick 
Published: July 2010

AbstractEU environmental law can allow flexibility in the way that it is implemented by the Member States. It can, for example, set an overall environmental objective for which Member States are free to adopt any instrument necessary to reach this target. As a result, Member States can adopt measures which vary in their efficiency (such as costs to businesses), which could reflect national legal constraints, pre-existing practices, etc. In order to assess which instruments to use, Member States should undertake some form of impact assessment, analysing the costs and benefits of different options. However, such analyses are not yet widespread and can be limited in the methods they use, such as in their involvement of stakeholders and use of costs and benefits analyses. In order for efficient and effective national legislative implementation it is, therefore, necessary for Member States to improve these analytical processes at different stages in the policy/legal cycle.
Satellites: A New Era for Envi ronmental Compliance?
Authors: Purdy Ray 
Published: July 2010

AbstractTraditional national methods of ensuring compliance with the requirements of environmental regulation based on licencing and bureaucratic physical inspection regimes can be resource intensive and may be ill suited to contemporary challenges. Ensuring compliance with international environmental laws is equally a matter of increasing concern. In recent years there has been growing interest internationally as to whether satellite technologies could have the capabilities to provide new and valuable sources of environmental information to be used in compliance strategies. This paper explores the potential and significance of employing satellite monitoring data as a compliance tool in the context of important recent advancements in the technology. Whilst satellite technologies offer great promise for detecting and monitoring environmentally related activities, it is clear that they are not yet suitable for all types of compliance monitoring needs. The paper will draw upon some national and international experience to date, and assess both the constraints and the opportunities that may be provided by satellite technologies in addressing limitations in conventional environmental inspection and enforcement regimes.
REACH - an Update
Authors: Hansen Bjorn , Blainey Mark 
Published: July 2010

AbstractAfter two and a half years of intense negotiation, a Common Position on REACH was finally adopted on 27 June 2006. There are numerous changes from the original Commission Proposal but by in large the general structure has been maintained, despite intensive lobbying from all sectors. The second reading in the Parliament began in September and all sides are stressing the need for a second reading deal, so REACH can enter into force in early 2007.
Revising the EU Air Quality Legislation: Experiences and Proposed Improvements
Authors: van den Hout Dick , Gasparinetti Marco 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThe Commission has issued in 2005 a proposal for replacing the current Framework Directive on air quality and its first three daughter directives by a single new directive on ambient air quality. The proposal responds to the high priority given by the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution to regulating PM2.5 in order to reduce the severe health risks associated with this component of particulate matter. One of the proposed changes is the adoption of an exposure reduction target for PM2.5, a new type of standard which, combined with a binding concentration cap, aims at delivering more substantial benefits in terms of population exposure, compared to the traditional approach. The directive also addresses certain difficulties that Member States are experiencing in implementing the existing directives. This concerns in particular the questions of where limit values apply and how to deal with natural sources of particulate matter when establishing compliance with limit values and the introduction of the possibility for extending, under strict conditions, the time frame for meeting limit values. This paper summarises the main elements of the existing directives, experience of its implementation in Member States and proposed changes. At the time of writing the paper, the proposal was under negotiation in Council and Parliament.
Exceedance of Limit Values for Fine Dust Particles: Violation of Community Law before German Courts
Authors: Klinger Remo 
Published: July 2010

AbstractFine dust limit values are being exceeded in many German cities. For this reason citizens living on particularly polluted roads have been taking legal action to enforce the adoption of action plans and immediate measures to reduce road traffic. Most of the early decisions by the German Administrative Courts have dismissed any rights of citizens to enforce the adoption of action plans or independent measures. These decisions have not followed the requirements of Community law regarding access by individuals to the national courts as prescribed by the ECJ because they deprive claimants in Germany of locus standi, and thereby prevent individuals from enforcing the limit values for fine dust particles in Germany. If German citizens are not allowed the right to claim legal protection, infringement proceedings against Germany are necessary. It is evident that sanctions pursuant to Article 11 of Directive 1999/30/EG do not exist in Germany. The analysis shows that there is an evident a conflict between EC law and German administrative law as applied by the German courts.
Tackling Aviation Emissions: the Challenges ahead
Authors: Barton Jane 
Published: July 2010

AbstractSince the advent of civil aviation, air transport has experienced almost continuous growth. However the growth of the industry brings with it an increase in emissions which impact on the environment. In particular, aviation has an impact on climate change through emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), water vapour and sulphate and soot particles at altitude. In September 2005, the European Commission adopted a Communication setting out its proposed approach for reducing the climate change impact of aviation. As well as recognising the importance of continuing existing policy measures, the Communication proposed the inclusion of the aviation sector in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. This proposed approach has been endorsed by Member States in the Council and the Commission is now preparing a proposal for legislation. This article explains the legislative context in which the proposal to include aviation in the EU ETS will be made and some of the policy and legal issues facing Community legislators in designing the scheme.