The Civil Justice Council of Scotland informed the UN body for breach of the environmental law

In October 2021, the Government Institutions of the Convention required that the Scottish government act “as a matter of urgency” to ensure that access to justice is no longer “prohibitively expensive” and address its breach of the requirements for access to justice of article 9 of the Convention.

In response, the Scottish government asked the SCJC to review the rules on legal expenses called protection expenses orders.

In his formal complaint to the Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention, ERCS argues that the review of the SCJC has breached article 8 of the Convention, which requires that public agencies consult the public by making certain laws that can significantly affect the environment.

After correspondence with ERCS, the SCJC initially agreed to make a public consultation in 2023. However, he later said that the consultation had been canceled to “avoid impacts of undue resources for possible respondents.”

Ben Christman, legal director of ERCS, said: “We have filed this complaint with the Compliance Committee today for the Scottish Civil Justice Council to count and call attention to the continuous failure of the State to respect the rights of Aarhus.

“The rules on the orders of protection expenses (PEO) are a tool used to ensure that it is affordable to go to the courts for the environment. The failures of Peo’s rules are well known: they need reviewed. The Scottish Civil Justice Council had the task of reviewing them.

“Despite telling us initially that they would consult the public, the Scottish Civil Justice Council carried out its closed doors. This seems to be a clear breach of article 8 of the Aarhus convention, which requires” effective public participation “during processes of law like this. This was not an effective public participation, there was no public participation.

“In addition to the problems raised in our complaint today, we hope that the Compliance Committee will find that the content of the recently reviewed Peo rules do not comply at the end of this year. Carrying out the closed door review failed to produce rules that comply with AARHUS, this demonstrates the need for public scrutiny.”

Dan Paris, director of politics and participation in Scottish Environment Link, said: “The failure of the Civil Justice Council of Scotland to consult the public is a disappointing development that further damages the responsibility and quality of environmental decision making in Scotland.

“Scotland is breaking the access of the Aarhus convention to the justice requirements and this was a critical opportunity to review the protection expenses to be affordable.

“Organizations such as Scottish Environment Link participate regularly in public consultations and have decades of experience to support decision making: we are disappointed that the Civil Justice Council of Scotland would not choose organizations as the opportunity to enter this experience and improve environmental democracy.”