Judicial and environmental review

Environmental civil litigation arises in both public and private law. In general terms public environmental challenges arise by way of judicial review, statutory review and more recently environmental review, while private law claims most often arise in tort and include nuisance and negligence.

Judicial review and statutory review of environmental decisions

The starting-point in judicial review and statutory challenges is that the claimant must identify a legal error, as opposed to simply disagreeing with the decision-maker’s conclusion.

The general grounds of challenge in judicial review cases are set out in Practice Note: Judicial review—what it is and when it can be used. Some of the common grounds in environmental claims include:

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challenging the way in which a decision was made
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misinterpretation of environmental policy
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challenging decisions involving environmental impact assessment (EIA) and habitats regulations and
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challenging land use planning decisions

Judicial review does not generally extend to include a review of the merits of a decision but only the lawfulness of the way in which it was made. Consequently, any challenges that seek to allege that the substance

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