The Role of the European Court of Human Rights
with regard to environmental law Cover Image

Rolul creator al Curții Europene a Drepturilor Omului privitor la dreptul mediului
The Role of the European Court of Human Rights with regard to environmental law

Author(s): Flaminia Stârc-Meclejan
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence
Published by: Universul Juridic
Keywords: right to a healthy environment; indirect protection; negative and positive obligations

Summary/Abstract: The right to a healthy environment is not present in the European Convention of Human Rights. But, being the work of the Council of Europe, whose main purpose is to guarantee the rule of law, the Convention ”implies” protecting a healthy environment. The latter is of course present in the spirit of the Convention, beyond its letter. The recognition of the right to a healthy environment is the result of an evolution of case-law which, without explicitly involving the recognition of new rights, extended the scope of the existing rights (”indirect protection”, according to the commonly used formula).ECHR's approach is truly original in that it uses basically individual rights in order to sanction harms to a collective good, the environment.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 167-179
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Romanian