CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS AND THE AARHUS CONVENTION IN COURT: JUDICIALISATION FROM BELOW IN SCOTLAND?

Abstract

The landscape for 'judicialisation from below' is changing in Scotland. The environmental movement has harnessed the provisions of the Aarhus Convention-an international agreement guaranteeing procedural rights in matters of environmental decision-making-in litigation efforts. In doing so litigants have begun to significantly challenge the structure of opportunities for contesting and overturning decisions of the state when it comes to environmental policy. Rather than undermining representative democracy this article argues this process constitutes a democratisation of access to justice. © 2013 © 2013 McDougall Trust, London.