Introduction to the Research Handbook on EU Environmental Law: The Challenge of Understanding EU Environmental Law

This book aims to draw insights into the use of different regulatory instruments by the EU and the role of the CJEU in putting them into practice in the field of EU environmental law. Since the First Environmental Action Plan from 1973, the ADBHU case from 1985, in which the European Court of Justice confirmed that environmental protection is ‘one of the Community’s essential objectives’, and the Single European Act from 1987, which introduced an explicit basis for environmental legislation, and for which the Maastricht Treaty from 1991 introduced qualified majority voting in the Council, a vast body of EU environmental legislation has come into existence. It is however an arduous task to acquire adequate insight into the main characteristics and structure of the whole body of EU environmental legislation, let alone comprehensive knowledge of the vast amount of individual provisions of the environmental acquis, including the relevant case law. While students of EU environmental law perhaps expect teachers to provide a systematic explanation of the numerous directives, regulations and decisions in the field of EU environmental law, the disappointing message to them is that no clear structure exists and that the development of EU environmental rules happened in a rather fragmented way, making the whole body difficult to comprehend and systematise. Even more challenging is the effort to get intelligible insight into the application of EU environmental law, so as to be able to measure compliance, and to assess whether such compliance leads to the desired effects. One of the most fundamental issues of environmental law in general is how to achieve an adequate level of protection, also in view of the difficult weighing of environmental, economic and social interests, including the impact on lifestyles when considering new obligations steering to less polluting behaviour.