Book Review: Focus on European Environmental Law
| Author | Jürgen G.J. Lefevere |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X9400100207 |
| Date | 01 June 1994 |
| Published date | 01 June 1994 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
IBookReviews
L. Kramer, Focus on European Environmental Law, Sweet and Maxwell,
1992, 321 pages, £45
Dr. Ludwig Kramer is Judge at the Landgericht in
Kie1
and Head of Legal Matters and
Application
of
Community Law in Directorate General XI on the environment, nuclear
safety and civil protection, of the European Commission. Kramer is one of the most
prominent authors on European environmental law. His previous publications include
a manual on European environmental law (EEC
Treaty
and environmental protection,
London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1990) and various articles. This book is a collection of
fourteen of those articles (in fourteen chapters) on European environmental law. These
articles have appeared over the past five years in various languages and in different
periodicals. They have all been updated and translated into English.
Although the author has tried to arrange the articles in the most logical way, most of
the chapters still stand alone. The result is that many chapters contain overlaps and part
of the information is scattered over several chapters without cross references. The first
three chapters for example all repeat in a few pages the origins of the involvement of
the European Community
(Ee)
with environmental matters. Some
of
the practical
examples used to illustrate points are also repeated in different chapters. The implemen-
tation
of
the drinking water directive in the United Kingdom, for example, is treated in
chapter 8 (p.201-202) and chapter 9 (p. 213), without cross reference. The book would
have been much more accessible if all the information on one subject had been collected
in one chapter. The participation of citizens and environmental groups, for example, is
treated in chapter 1 (p.2-4), chapter 2 (p.26-27), chapter 3 (p.62-65), chapter 5 (p.129-
130), chapter 7 (p.173-178), and chapter 10.
The advantage of the approach chosen by the author is however that most of the sub-
jects treated in .the book are treated in more depth than is the case in most of the
manuals on European environmental law. The book contains, for example, a chapter on
regional policy (chapter 4), chapters on the participation of environmental organizations
in the activities of the community and the individual's right of complaint on environ-
mental matters in community law (chapters 5 and 10). It also contains some chapters
on relatively new and previously uncovered areas, such as the chapter on compensation
for disaster damage (chapter 11). Kramer even includes a chapter on the open society,
its laws and its environment, in which he uses an unusual, but very interesting, philo-
sophical approach to point out defects in the current environmental legislation and
enforcement process. By using Karl Popper's theory of the open society and piecemeal
engineering Kramer pleads for greater transparency and a permanent open, democratic
discussion on environmental matters.
As the author works for the Commission
of
the EC, he is in the position to give some
interesting jnsights into the practical side
of
some of the procedures in the Community.
The chapter on the elaboration of EEC environment legislation (chapter 6) for instance
gives an overview of the adaption process of some directives. The chapter on the
226 MJ 1 (1994)
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