Introduction

In this chapter we consider a different technique of environmental protection from those discussed so far: environmental assessment. As a procedural requirement that the likely effects of policies, plans and projects be taken into account before authorisation is granted, environmental assessment is strikingly different from substantive and prescriptive measures, which have until recently made up the bulk of modern environmental law. A type of assessment now pervades most environmental decision making. The form of environmental assessment has also been appropriated for use in areas which are not usually defined as ‘environmental’, for example in determining the likely impact (in social and economic terms) of a piece of proposed legislation, or the possible effects of changes to family structures.

The remarkable evolution of environmental assessment as a foundation for decision making reflects many of the developments in environmental law that we have discussed throughout this book – the development of integrated and preventive methods of control, the fostering of responsibility (or stewardship) for the environment, and the growing acceptance of the validity of pre-emptive or even precautionary measures. Environmental assessment also increasingly provides a vehicle for enhancing public participation in environmental decision making. The hopeful expectation is that this encourages some qualitative comment on the suitability of particular projects or policies capable of supporting, balancing or even countering scientific information about possible effects on the environment which has traditionally made up the bulk of information fed into decision making procedures as we discuss in Chapter 1, pp. 12–34.