1.5  Statutes, Legislation and Sources of Environmental Law

Sources

Environmental law has rapidly evolved, which is reflected in the growing amount of legislation linked to environmental protection. The primary legislation such as the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA 1990) provides the framework for all environmental law. A large number of secondary legislation has now been added. An example is where EPA 1990 empowers the Secretary of State for the Environment to introduce, through regulation, detailed and technical provisions that correspond with large parts of the Act. Here, EPA 1990 can be seen as framework legislation. It is in the secondary legislation however, that the provisions relating to, for example applications procedures, licensing systems, appeals procedures and environmental quality systems are mainly contained. Such legislation is usually long and complicated such as The Waste Management Licence Regulations 1994 SI 1994/1056. This can be partly attributed to the fact that enacting laws to cover environmental problems is very difficult. In addition to the secondary legislation, the legislative framework is also increasingly supplemented by statutory guidance, which is most prevalent in the case of the Environment Act 1995 (EA 1995), and found for example, in the contaminated land provisions. The understanding of environmental legislation in the UK is also compounded by the fact that it must also comply with EU law, which has differences in the way in which it is formulated and in the principles behind it.

In general, the sources of environmental law include:

• International legislation: conventions, treaties and protocols
• EC legislation
• UK legislation: (which is covered in more detail below)
• Primary legislation
• Statutory Instruments
• Statutory guidance
• Case law
• Government notes such as Planning Policy Guidance Notes
• Government circulars
• Codes of practice
• Guidance Notes from the relevant Enforcement Authority