Development of Estonian Environmental Law: Integration with Europe

• Author: Hannes Veinla
• Pages: 30-34

Hannes Veinla

Development of Estonian Environmental Law: Integration with Europe

Environmental law has several characteristic features in comparison with some other, more traditional legal disciplines. In addition to having very complex and closely interrelated components, environmental law is dynamic and constantly evolving. This aspect requires that environmental regulations be flexible, but at the same time the legal framework of environmental law must look to the long term and be based on a systematic legal approach. The latter could be achieved by elaboration of the basic principles of this legal discipline accepted by the international community and their adoption into the body of national environmental law.

Among the characteristic features of modern environmental law, the international dimension plays a supreme role. Within the scope of international law, there is a developing body of environmental protection measures. International treaties and customs create directly binding norms while other sources of international environmental law (such as generally accepted principles) have a more direct influence on the development of national laws. At the same time, the world community consists of widely disparate nations. Some of them have highly developed free market economies, while others are unable to maintain even a sufficient standard of living for their growing population. For this reason, international environmental protection measures face similar difficulties as the other sectors of international law. In many cases, there are serious problems in finding a consensus on environmental protection issues across the international community. Various interrelated methods of legal regulation have developed in different countries to further the aims and objectives of environmental policy. States enact and implement regulations on the basis of environmental problems, legal traditions and the economic situation specific to a particular country. However, despite all of the aforesaid difficulties of harmonisation, it must be emphasised that some basic principles of environmental law have achieved broad acceptance at the regional and international level.

International environmental law, like other sectors of international law, has multiple sources. The sources consist of "soft" law and "hard" law. "Soft" law is not a traditional source of law and consists of declarations, recommendations and other instruments which are not binding in character. On the other hand, "hard" international environmental law¹ consists of generally recognised principles of law, customary law, treaties, judicial decisions and academic texts.

The following study aims to evaluate Estonian environmental legislation from the international law perspective. From amongst the principles of environmental law, this paper deals with the principles of prevention and precaution, the "polluter pays" principle and the best available technology principle.

Estonian environmental law is a relatively new legal discipline and is being continuously revised and amended. In addition to continuous amendment, another problem is the existence of conflicting regulations and policies within Estonia’s environmental laws. Environmental legislation has often been enacted in response to an urgent problem in a particular environmental sector and, therefore, Estonian environmental law is divided amongst many different pieces of legislation. The different laws overlap at times and also contain gaps, leaving some aspects unregulated. The need for a systematic legal approach is obvious.

Estonian environmental legislation is based on two "framework" pieces of legislation: the Nature Protection Act² of 1990 and the Sustainable Development Act³ of 1995. These Acts provide a basis for the elaboration of more detailed laws and administrative regulations on environmental protection and establish the general principles, aims and objectives of nature conservation, the use of natural resources and pollution control.

The Constitution of the Republic of Estonia provides the legal bases for the system of laws and regulations for nature protection. Section 5 of the Constitution states that natural resources are national assets which are to be used sustainably. Section 53 further requires that "Everyone has a duty to preserve the human and natural environment and to compensate for damage caused to the environment by him or her". Unfortunately, the Constitution does not list among basic rights, the right to a clean environment and to environmental information.

From the environmental protection perspective, it must be pointed out that section 32 of the Constitution states that restrictions on property rights and land use regimes can be imposed only by law, that is, an Act of the Riigikogu⁴ and consequently, not by government regulation or by the regulation of local governments.

The Sustainable Development Act establishes a national strategy of principles for sustainable development. According to the Act, the purpose of sustainable development is to guarantee an environment which meets human needs as well as provides the necessary resources for economic development without causing significant damage to the environment while maintaining...