While activities which have an effect on the environment, like the building of industrial plants, are protected through subjective rights and legally enforceable, equivalent rights for nature are missing in German law. It is generally known that a lack of enforcement exists in the environmental law area. In order to fill this gap, the first federal states and then the federal government introduced so-called “class action lawsuits” in nature conservation legislation. This gives recognized environmental organisations in legally determined cases access to legal remedies without having to claim a violation of their own subjective rights. International and European Law, however, oblige Germany to extend its legislation around these issues. Article 9 of the Aarhus Convention foresees a right to access to justice in environmental matters not only for individuals, but also for environmental organisations. The European Court of Justice and the Aarhus Compliance Committee both confirmed that the existing means of redress in Germany do not completely comply with the European and international legal requirements. The current draft law is the third try to bring German environmental law in conformity with the international and European standards. Specifically, it is supposed to bring national legislation in conformity with article 9, paragraph 2 and 3 of the Convention. Generally, the range of requirements around special procedures and procedural law is significantly extended through the new draft law. Nevertheless, according to the author, further adaptions to international and European law will be inevitable.
