Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

Law concerning the environment existed in the United Kingdom, which was one of the first countries to experience extensive and rapid industrial and urban development, long before the term "environmental" came into wide usage. A number of features, notably a high degree of discretion, a preference for local administration and a concern for practicality joined at times with a degree of parochialism, have long permeated much of the substantive law on the environment. Many of these characteristics are reflected in the description of the major strands of current law and administrative arrangements.' Although these traits frequently appear to give a distinctive flavor to British law and policy, they are not immutable. Recent years have seen the development of a number of significant policy themes which are challenging many traditional approaches in the field of environmental law. Since these challenges already are beginning to affect the design and application of substantive law and are likely to assume increasing importance, the concluding section of this paper identifies and discusses these emerging trends.

Britain is separated geographically from continental Europe, and, arguably, it was this insularity which facilitated the growth and development of a system of law distinct from those of other European countries. In the field of environmental law and policy, a number of the topographical and physical attributes of the country have influenced policy preoccupations and approaches. Accordingly, in order to provide a context and perhaps an explanation of current arrangements, some of these features are worth highlighting at the outset.

The United Kingdom is approximately 244,000 square kilometers in area-roughly the same size as the Federal Republic of Germany and two-thirds the size of Poland. With a total population of 56 million (expected to increase by about 4 million by the year 2016) and a population density of an average of 231 persons per square kilometer (rising to 358 persons per square kilometer in England itself), the United Kingdom is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. This population density ensures that the resolution of conflicting land uses will be an issue of priority. Approximately eighty percent of the land in Great Britain is used for agricultural purposes, although current concerns over surplus food production suggest that this may have to be reduced by up to ten percent over the next decade. Nine percent of the land is used for forestry and the remaining eleven percent is urban land. However, these proportions bear little relation to employment distribution since only about two percent of the working population is engaged in agriculture or forestry, while thirty-six percent is in manufacturing and related industries and sixty-two percent is in service industries and the public sector. Little true "wilderness" land exists in Great Britain; even most land within national parks and other extensive areas of scenic value remains in private ownership. Although subject to more extensive regulation, such land generally is used for agricultural purposes.

Another attribute of the country is that, despite its population density and history of industrial development, the natural geographical conditions have been sufficiently resilient to absorb a large degree of pollution. Water often has been a significant dispersal route for effluent discharges, encouraged by numerous fast-flowing rivers, strong tides and the fact that no place in Britain is more than 120 kilometers from tidal waters. The major cause of visible air pollution in urban areas over the last hundred years, the production of smoke from domestic sources, largely has been arrested due to changes in fuel usage and various legal measures.' Nor, in contrast to many other European countries, has Britain generally been a visible receptor of pollution from other countries. This insularity from the harmful discharges of others arises naturally; the prevailing winds are south-westerly and no major international watercourse runs through the country. Although Britain has been involved actively in the development of many international conventions and treaties concerning the environment and generally has a good reputation for complying with those instruments to which it is a signatory, its apparent insularity from the type of crossboundary environmental and pollution problems experienced elsewhere and its long-developed system of laws and controls until recently have created little real pressure for transnational cooperation in this field. This has allowed self-satisfaction with national ways of handling environmental issues to color much of administrative thinking in the field over the last thirty years.

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