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• We provide a method for analyzing the French law on natural hazards and environmental protection for land planning. • A diagnosis of the coherence and difficulties related to the implementation of public policies at the local level is presented. • We present an inventory of regulatory texts. • An analytical model for identifying and linking risk management tools is presented. • We present its application to 3 French territories. French public authorities have to manage the protection of the environment and risks. This study proposes a method for analyzing the French law on environmental hazards and the protection of the environment in the context of land planning. The main question asked is: Do the difficulties of implementing environmental policies stem from the complexity of the law or from the organization of local land management? The final aim is to offer reading keys to aid local planning decisions in France. The approach proposed is based on collecting and organizing the regulations, analyzing their application in practice, and comparing the legal standpoints to the logic of local decision-makers. This study demonstrates the extent to which French environmental regulations are complex and how they can be adapted locally in order to improve their application and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France amended its constitution in 2005 to include a Charter for the Environment. The Charter lays out France's commitment to supporting the right to a 'balanced environment'. This article first traces the Charter's origins to a legacy-building presidential initiative. Jacques Chirac decided to invest in a neglected policy domain in which his own majority had shown little interest. He was obliged to intervene repeatedly in order to bring this project to a successful conclusion. In doing so, he staked out environmental affairs as an area of potential presidential supremacy. Next, the content of the Charter is examined. In this document, French traditions of universalism come together with an international movement for anticipatory environmental protection. This is reflected in the constitutionalisation of the precautionary principle, which emerged as the most controversial part of the Charter. The debates this provoked tended to caricature a risk-management principle whose meaning has been carefully refined to forestall objections. Finally, the Charter's potential efficacy is analysed. The post-Charter record of legislative and judicial activity concerning the environment is meagre, but not wholly inauspicious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All advanced industrialized societies face the problem of air pollution produced by motor vehicles. In spite of striking improvements in internal combustion engine technology, air pollution in most urban areas is still measured at levels determined to be harmful to human health. Throughout the 1990s and beyond, California and France both chose to improve air quality by means of technological innovation, adopting legislation that promoted clean vehicles, prominently among them, electric vehicles (EVs). In California, policymakers chose a technology-forcing approach, setting ambitious goals (e.g., zero emission vehicles), establishing strict deadlines and issuing penalties for non-compliance. The policy process in California called for substantial participation from the public, the media, the academic community and the interest groups affected by the regulation. The automobile and oil industries bitterly contested the regulation, in public and in the courts. In contrast, in France the policy process was non-adversarial, with minimal public participation and negligible debate in academic circles. We argue that California's stringent regulation spurred the development of innovative hybrid and fuel cell vehicles more effectively than the French approach. However, in spite of the differences, both California and France have been unable to put a substantial number of EVs on the road. Our comparison offers some broad lessons about how policy developments within a culture influence both the development of technology and the impact of humans on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which examined the use of the environmental agreement as a tool of environmental law and policy in France. Basis for the application of public participation in the environmental decision-making process; Conclusion.

The article discusses the deadline for the action plan in reducing noise in France's largest cities which stems from the 2002 European Union's (EU) antinoise directive. It says that the first stage of the EU directive required mapping noise levels in all cities with at least 250,000 people. However, major European cities are missing the deadline for the noise maps. Report shows that most of the reduction noise in cities will come from changing transportation infrastructure. The solutions discussed are making the noise sources quiter and insulating buildings better from outside noise. It also notes that the complexity of dealing with noise is impossible, but European cities are trying to comply with the policy.

Criticizes a vote by France's National Assembly to write the precautionary principle into the country's constitution. Precautionary principle featured in environmental law since the 1970s; Response of the French Academy of Sciences to the move by the French charter to make the precautionary principle directly applicable; Issues that can be addressed in constitutions.