Law reform
Everyone in Scotland deserves to live in a healthy environment. ERCS is advocating for an enforceable right to a healthy environment to be fully implemented and realised in Scots law, so we can all use it to defend our communities and nature.
Right to a healthy environment
We are advocating for an enforceable right to a healthy environment to be fully incorporated and defined to the highest possible standards as part of a new Human Rights Act in Scotland.
Aarhus Convention
We are advocating for Scotland to fulfil its legal obligations under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, by making legal expenses affordable and introducing an equal right of appeal in planning.
Scottish Environment Court
We are advocating for a dedicated Scottish Environment Court to increase access to justice, address fragmented routes to remedy, and develop judicial expertise in environmental cases.
Ecocide
We are scoping the feasibility and options for the criminalisation of ecocide into Scots law, in order to deter the worst environmental offenders.
Support for environmental law reform
Over 1,500 individuals and 66 organisations including environmental groups, charities, think tanks and trade unions signed our petition to the Scottish Government calling for an enforceable right to a healthy environment. The petition was submitted in December 2023.
We call on the Scottish Government to:
- Ensure our right to a healthy environment is enforceable in a court of law against public bodies and polluters, with effective remedies
- Ensure our right to a healthy environment guarantees the highest standards for clean air, a safe climate, access to safe water and adequate sanitation, healthy and sustainably produced food, non-toxic environments in which to live, work, study and play, and healthy biodiversity and ecosystems
- Reform legal expenses so that it is affordable for all of us to uphold environmental laws in a court or tribunal
- Create a specialist environmental court which is affordable and accessible for everyone, fair, timely and effective
Scotland urgently needs an enforceable right to
a healthy environment
Organisations supporting the calls
