EJNI Consultation Response: Access to Environmental Justice in Northern Ireland 2025
Publications: Environmental Democracy
This call for evidence seeks views on the UK’s compliance with the Aarhus Convention’s access-to-justice provisions (Article 9), focusing on three issues raised by the UN Aarhus Compliance Committee about Northern Ireland’s justice system:
Costs protection – ensuring justice is not prohibitively expensive, covering the effectiveness of current regulations, appeals and cost caps, shared caps, cross-undertakings in damages, and costs for interveners.
Extending costs protection to private nuisance cases.
Judicial review time limits.
The consultation also overlooks other concerns raised by the Committee, such as third-party appeals and fairness in appeals procedures, as well as further breaches identified by experts that have not yet been formally considered. EJNI welcomes the consultation but urges the Department of Justice to address all clear breaches, not just those with substantive ACCC findings.
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