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Airports are contested infrastructures. They are regarded both as icons of modernity and as a threat to a climate‐neutral future. Judicial review is increasingly relied upon to determine the legality of planning permissions for further airport development in light of climate obligations. Focusing on regional airport development and the review of planning approvals for expansion at Bristol, Southampton and Stansted airports, this article shows how the relevant policies and legislation, as well as the courts in applying these, find cohesion between airport expansion and climate action. These efforts, nonetheless, are tantamount to an attempt at squaring the circle: the fundamental disconnect between climate commitments and the increase in greenhouse gas emissions from regional airport expansion remains unsettled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plastic pollution is now considered one of the largest environmental threats facing humans and animals globally. Development of bioplastic materials may offer part of the solution as bioplastics include both nondegradable and biodegradable materials with both being important for sustainability. Bioplastic materials are currently being designed to encompass minimal carbon footprint, high recycling value and complete biodegradability. This review examines recent developments and trends in the field of bioplastic materials. A range of the most utilized bioplastic materials is presented (poly(lactic acid) (PLA), polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), starch, cellulose, bio-based poly(butylene succinate) (bio-PBS) and bio-polyethylene (bio-PE)) including their production, application and degradation options.

The author reviews the role of footnotes as scholarly crafting in the legal profession and shares writing tips for early career scholars. She considers a perfectly constructed footnote as a sign of accomplished craftsmanship and that footnotes in legal scholarship indicates an alternative view or exclusivity. She points out that omission of references is an act of misquoting and a moral legal violation of the fundamental academic rule of intellectual honesty.

Restoring ecosystems and enhancing biodiversity is one of many regulatory ambitions under the European Green Deal. The motivations to do so include, but are not limited to, enabling carbon removal by capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in land. The business model of such schemes is to help the EU and its Member States meet their climate obligations whilst safeguarding biodiversity, and when relevant, enable sustainable agricultural practices by creating transferable carbon credits awarded to land managers pursuing such practices. The idea of introducing market-based mechanisms in the management of ecosystem services is not a novelty, but the increasing prominence of carbon removals in the European Green Deal and its related legislative actions warrants careful consideration of legal quandaries about how such removals are to be carried out, why, where and by whom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How we frame environmental problems and their solutions matters. Under the UK Net Zero Strategy and the European Green Deal, climate action—as a policy- and regulatory response to climate change—is framed overwhelmingly positive and coupled with the ambitions to generate growth, facilitate innovation, improve health and wellbeing, ensure inclusiveness and much else. This is done to project climate ambitions as part of a win–win scenario where no one is left behind. Yet it is unclear how each of the different aims relate to each other, which risks creating legal dilemmas, and possibly undermining climate action altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers legal perspective on British Supreme Court decision in the environmental law case Friends of the Earth v. Heathrow Airport Ltd. which concerned a challenge to a National Policy Statement (NPS) affirming the commitment of the British government to build a third runway at Heathrow. Topics include the ruling of the Court of Appeal on the lawfulness of the NPS, the four defects of the NPS and the effort of the Court to apply general principles of administrative law in the case.

Infrastructure is often viewed through global and promotional lenses, particularly its role in creating market connectivity. However, infrastructure is heavily dependent on and constitutive of local spaces, where 'frictions', or disputes, emerge. Drawing on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a case study, we examine in detail two cases of BRI-related climate change litigation – one in Pakistan, and one in Kenya – that shed light on the frictions arising from what is deemed the most significant transnational infrastructure project of our time. In doing so, this study demonstrates how infrastructure can be made more visible in environmental law and how environmental law itself provides an important mechanism for stabilizing friction in the places where infrastructure is located. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change mitigation, and the concept of green recovery. Topics discussed include commonalities between COVID-19 and climate change from the perspectives of economists, the European Union's climate targets and policies, and the proposed European Climate Law to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

A growing global wave of climate change litigation is led by minors, relying on their human rights, as well as those of future generations against governments and their failure to take action on climate change. Such litigation is emerging also before the Court of Justice of the European Union, where the ambitiousness of the EU's climate change policies, embodied in the 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework, is challenged. This may suggest a possible 'rights turn' in EU climate change litigation, where the use of rights claims intensifies and allows stakeholders traditionally excluded from decision making to raise their concerns in a judicial forum. This article explains why this trend has failed to materialize in the EU through an analysis of EU environmental law particularities. From this view, it shows the shortcomings of the 2030 Framework, and by drawing inspiration from successful enforcement of statutory obligations in EU air quality legislation, the article suggests how these may be remedied in future legislative action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the interconnectedness of populism, the rule of law and environmental protection in Serbia. Topics include a brief background on the history of democracy in Serbia, a discussion on the role of environmental law scholars in the wake of populism, and the author's argument about the need to analyze the demand for populist rule in relation to environmental regulation.

This paper sheds light on the existence of a differential deterrence regime in EU law, depending on whether the State or the firm is the addressee of a legal obligation. To that end, we review two areas of EU law--environmental law and competition law. Both disciplines employ fines to deter the State and the firm respectively from violating their specific duties under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union: the 'duty to transpose ' with regard to State obligation under environmental law, and the 'duty to compete ' in relation to firms under competition law. We show how the deterrence regime is softer on the State in at least three ways: functionally (the purpose ascribed to the penalties), operationally (the method followed to set and liquidate the penalty), and procedurally (requiring prior judicial approval as opposed to immediate applicability). These findings are significant for two reasons: they suggest a State versus firm discrepancy in the EU's deterrence regime, and serve to initiate a debate on the desirability of such a divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the decision of the court of the case H. N. v. Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in the European Union. It provides brief overview of the legal and factual background of the case, which involves a Pakistani national, who entered Ireland on a student visa in 2003. It outlines the judgment which relies heavily on the principle of effectiveness in intervening in national procedural autonomy to ensure respect on fundamental rights.

The purpose of this article is to show it is only in light of legal culture that climate change jurisprudence in the European Union can be explained. Examining the case law concerning the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, this article demonstrates that climate change proceedings in the European Union raise questions that stand at the heart of the EU legal order; that is, they demand that the boundaries of the EU's regulatory competences are drawn. In effect, the EU courts focus on ensuring that EU climate change laws are in accord with the rule of law or, in the context of EU law, the borders of the EU's environmental regulatory powers. As such, this article shows that attention needs to be given to the interaction between climate change laws and the constitutional role of the EU judiciary. These interactions are considered here together with the contingency of EU climate change litigation on EU legal culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]