Miljökvalitetsnormer : En rättsvetenskaplig studie i regelteknik för operationalisering av miljömål

• This is a study of legal instruments for the attainment of goals relating to environmental quality and primarily environmental quality standards. The point of departure is the fact that mankind wishes not only to achieve but also to maintain environmental goals. The most comprehensive goal of this kind - fundamental for mankind and accorded international respect - is that of sustainable development. To attain environmental quality goals it is necessary to break these down (operationalise) into subgoals and further subgoals and possible limits for environmental quality, until rules of conduct derived from these goals can be laid down. This study is concerned with the potentials and obstacles imposed by the legal system on the operationalising of environmental quality goals and on managing situations which concern not only society as a whole but also generations to come. Since there are so many different environmental states to control, the conditions of which may vary considerably, this operationalising procedure need to be not only linked to the legal system, but to be reflected in it. This means that a legal operationalisation is mandatory, linking the environmental quality goal ultimately to rights and obligations for individuals (to their substantive legal positions). Environmental quality standards appear directly to reflect the desired environmental condition, they can be linked to legal effect and seem therefore suited to the task as instrument for attaining environmentat goals, The legal theory behind such standards has therefore been of special interest for this study. These standards are used as an alternative but more often as a complement to activity-oriented Iegislation. The use and implementation of environmental quality standard in four different legal systems are described and analysed, namely the United States including both Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, Japan, the European Union, and Sweden. The success of implementing environmental quality standards seems dependent on the legal obstacles encountered in handling ongoing changes inthe environment or lack of improvements in environmental quality and on transforming these effects into rights and obligations for individuals - a continuous feed-back system making the environment legally relevant. This dissertation not only provides a theory of environmentat quality standards including criteria for such standards, but shows also that environmental quality standards and similar legal techniques can be developed to handle environmental quality even if there is complexity and non-linearity. This category of rules may respond to the need for environmental limits (such as limits for ecosystems and organisms' assimilation and reproduction capacity) to be legally relevant. Finally, a result from this study is an outline of a theory about legal navigation instruments by which the goal of sustainable development should be more manageable.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Juridik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Law (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Law

RÄTTSVETENSKAP/JURIDIK

LAW/JURISPRUDENCE

RÄTTSVETENSKAP/JURIDIK

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

dok (ämneskategori)