Law and environmental protection

Environmental law is a relatively young area of law that has been developing rapidly for the last 50 years or so. This development took place mainly as the development of international environmental instruments, through various types of agreements between states, which were then implemented and adapted to individual states. As an EU member, Croatia is also required to follow a number of EU regulations in the field of environmental protection.

Regulations in the field of environmental law can be roughly divided into the following areas:

• regulations protecting certain components of the environment (e.g. air, water, soil, sea, cultural heritage, etc.);
• regulations governing subjective rights in relation to the environment (right to environmental information, participation in environmental proceedings, right of access to courts to exercise environmental rights, right to compensation for damage to the environment, etc.);
• regulations for the implementation of environmental protection policies (various plans and programs, emissions trading schemes, tax legislation, subsidies, etc.).

Through the topic of environmental protection law, we primarily seek to inform and educate citizens about environmental issues, their rights and opportunities. At the same time, we strive to provide them with free legal aid in environmental protection and nature conservation.

However, activism in environmental protection requires knowledge of various other regulations that are important for safe and effective activism, and which do not fall into the field of environmental law (right to public assembly, misdemeanor law, referendum law, expropriation, compensation law, etc.). All this makes the topic of environmental law in FoE Croatia an extremely dynamic and extensive area of work.