Home | Back Issues | Contact Us | News Home
 
 
“All Citizens are Equal before Law and are Entitled to Equal Protection of Law”-Article 27 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
 



Issue No: 161
March 20, 2010

This week's issue:
Reviewing the views
Law vision
Good News
Law campaign
Rights investigation
HUMAN Rights monitor
For Your information
Law Week

Back Issues

Law Home

News Home


 

Law campaign

Make the people environmentally educated

Rubaiyat Rahman

Since the Stockholm Declaration in 1972, environmental issues have been receiving the attention of the states and its' general public. People draw their concern towards the deteriorating environmental situations of their respective countries. Government's initiatives have become evident. Consequently, enactments and notifications have turned into a prime symbol of governments' afford to protect the environment. As a law student, when I skim through the provisions of the enactments and orders of the notification, I find those far away from environmental concepts, which should not be righteous to tackle the deterioration of the environment. Rather, which is visible to a law student like me is these Acts and notifications spare most of their provisions in allotting positions to Government officials and in making bureaucratic tangles.

Conservation of environment would not be possible at all by making it more stringent. It would not make the people law abiding nor sympathize and sincere towards the conservation of environmental components. A large magnitude of people lives below the poverty line and lion share of them have been preoccupied for their livings. Where “necessity knows no law” is the cause behind people's blinking at laws there it is necessary to take other approaches like making them environmentally conscious for the good of protecting their own interest and livelihood. Our environmental laws, therefore, need to be more concept-oriented.

Assurance of "Public Trust Doctrine"
This legal theory rests on the principle that certain resources like air, water and forests have such a great importance to the public as a whole that it would be wholly unjustified to make them a subject of private ownership. The doctrine enjoins upon the Government to protect the resources for the enjoyment of the general public rather than to permit their use for private and commercial purposes.

The preamble of the Wetland Act, 2000 (Act No. 36 of 2000) enumerates the objective of the Act as to protect the playgrounds, open space, park and natural wetland for conserving the environmental components of those conserved areas. Although the enactment contemplates to conserve the areas, no evidence is available that public right is legally asserted.

New concept of "Burden of Proof"
Environmental law is now a focal feature of the legal science, but it still lacks visible boundaries which are left to be established as cornerstone by judicial decisions as the law developed. Hence, where immediate and just decisions are needful, there are often no easy options for preserving the 'status quo' on pending the resolution of the dispute. The uncertainty of the opinions, especially scientific opinion relating to environment, creates serious problems for the Court. The US Supreme Court observed in a case [(1993) 113 SC 2786]: “… there are important differences between the guest for truth in the Courtroom and the guest for truth in the laboratory. Scientific conclusions are subject to perpetual revision, Law, on the other hand, must resolve dispute finally and quickly.”

Therefore, it is not fair that those opposing the degradation of the environment would be compelled to shoulder the evidentiary burden. It is necessary to consider that the party attempting to preserve the status quo of environment should not carry the burden of proof and the party who wants to alter it must bear the burden.

Public participation and "Neighbour Principle"
The goals of maintaining the sustainability of environment cannot be achieved by any government at its own level until the public has a participatory role. The Wetland Act, 2000 (Act No. 36 of 2000) and the Brick Burning Control Act, 1989 (Act No. 8 of 1989) in the sections 12 and 8 respectively debar the direct participation of public. Along with this, the 'neighbour principle' should be enshrined in the short title of our environmental laws. The 'neighbour principle' was propounded by Lord Atkin in an English case (1932 AC 562). In the case he stated the duty of care: "You are to love your people becomes in law, you must not injure your people… … You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions, which you can reasonably foresee, would likely to injure your neighbour."

Concluding remark
In conclusion, the application of these principles is possible only when the public is aware and educated and after all, these principles are reflected in our Act. Subsequently, people can comprehend that if we make other a victim by degrading environment we are actually harming our own selves. It is all the more important to acknowledge the people on environmental concepts and make them realize that sometimes the adverse impact of environment would not be confronted until a threshold is reached and we may be ensnared by a disaster. Hence, we have no other option to make the people environmentally educated and indeed, to make the enactments more concept-bound.

The writer is a third year student of law at the University of Dhaka.

 

 

 
 
 
 


© All Rights Reserved
thedailystar.net