A Review of the Court of Justice’s Case Law in Relation to Waste and Environmental Impact Assessment: 1992-2011

During the two decades spanning the turn of the past century, the Court of Justice of the EU delivered a steady stream of preliminary rulings and judgments in actions for infringement that related to important and novel legislation on waste and environmental impact assessment. This article considers the significant contribution made by these cases, both to the interpretation of fundamental specific concepts underpinning both the Waste Directive and the Environmental Impact Directive and to the development of general principles of EU law in fields such as the direct effect of directives, aspects of implementation of directives, and judicial protection and enforcement. In the context of both the particular legislation at issue and the general principles relevant to its application, the Court’s rulings in these superficially narrow areas have dramatically advanced the scope and effectiveness of the directives and the evolution of critical principles.