Unlocking Legal Gridlock in High-Income Countries: How Excessive Litigation Hampers Growth and Harms Democracy

Rasquin Christian ()
Additional contact information
Rasquin Christian: Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany

The Law and Development Review, 2021, vol. 14, issue 2, 665-688

Abstract: The paper focuses on rules of standing in the context of environmental law. With the implementation of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making, and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) in European law, interest groups have become major players in the enforcement of environmental regulations. Although such interest groups can help to reduce enforcement deficits, their involvements create the risk of regulatory gridlock, with excessive litigation lengthening approval processes which can discourage investment in public and private infrastructure. The paper discusses the implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Germany, highlights ways to overcome administrative gridlock and facilitate effective approval procedures. If implemented, these strategies will enable Germany’s economy to remain competitive, supporting the maintenance of the country’s high standard of living and strong welfare state.

Keywords: legal standing; environmental law; administrative procedural law; environmental interest groups; legal gridlock (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/ldr-2021-0087 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:lawdev:v:14:y:2021:i:2:p:665-688:n:14

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/ldr/html

DOI: 10.1515/ldr-2021-0087

Access Statistics for this article

The Law and Development Review is currently edited by Yong-Shik Lee

More articles in The Law and Development Review from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().