ERCS welcomes proposed changes to court rules announced by the Scottish Civil Justice Council (SCJC), which come after years of inaction from public authorities to address the cost of environmental litigation.
The proposed changes signal a major step forward in the provision of affordable access to justice. If fully implemented, they would reduce the cost of legal action and address many of Scotland’s longstanding breaches of the Aarhus Convention.
The shake-up follows years of sustained campaigning by ERCS for a fundamental overhaul of court rules to protect litigants from unaffordable legal expenses that prevent people from taking environmental cases to court.
The SCJC initially refused to consult publicly on changes to court rules, but reversed its position after ERCS submitted a formal complaint to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (ACCC) arguing that this constituted a breach of Article 8 of the Aarhus Convention, which requires public bodies to consult the public when making certain laws that can significantly affect the environment. A consultation was subsequently held in November 2025, which informed the changes announced in January (you can read ERCS’s response here).
The SCJC have indicated that they will prepare new draft rules for the Court of Session, Sheriff Courts and the Sheriff Appeal Court, consulting on the new draft rules in June this year with a view to bring them into effect in early 2027.
ERCS welcomes these commitments towards making the PEO rules Aarhus compliant, which represents a major shift in the SCJC’s policy on this matter. We will continue to advocate for fundamental access to justice reforms that guarantee our ability to exercise our environmental rights and enforce environmental law.
Header image: Court of Session in Edinburgh by Magnus Hagdorn, licenced under CC BY-SA 2.0, edited.
