The growing awareness of an impending environmental crisis coupled with a series of national and regional environmental disasters led, in the 1960s and 1970s, to the birth of the global environmental movement and the widespread recognition of the need to protect the environment for both current and future generations. Against this backdrop the concept of 'environmental rights' surfaced as a means by which claims relating to the environment could be formulated in legal terms and thereby safeguarded. In the decades that followed, this concept has come to encompass many different variations of legal rights, which this book seeks to investigate and assess.

Part I: Environmental Rights: Hopes, Fears and Realities1. Environmental Rights in Europe and Beyond: Setting the SceneSanja Bogojevic and Rosemary Rayfuse2. Pitfalls in Promoting Environmental Rights Colin T Reid3. Environmental Rights in Marine SpacesRichard Barnes Part II: What Kinds of Environmental Rights in the EU Context?4. Substantive Environmental Rights in the EU: Doomed to Disappoint? Chris Hilson5. Environmental (Property) Rights in Market-based Management Sanja Bogojevic6. Environmental Rights and Principles: Investigating Article 37 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights Eloise Scotford7. Article 11 TFEU and Environmental Rights Julian Nowag Part III: Courts and Environmental Rights8. Green Courts as the Providers of Environmental Rights? The Case of the Swedish Land and Environment CourtsAnders Bengtsson9. EU Environmental Rights as Human Rights: Some Methodological Difficulties Facing European Courts 1Eduardo Gill-Pedro Part IV: Whose Environmental Rights?10. The Rights of Environmental Investors: The Case of Renewable Energy Anatole Boute11. Pulling the Trigger: ENGO Standing Rights and the Enforcement of Environmental Obligations in EU Law Jan Darpö