Training materials

This handbook is intended to enable national judges in all types of tribunals in both civil law and common law jurisdictions to identify environmental issues coming before them and to be aware of the range of options available to them in interpreting and applying the law. It seeks to provide judges with a practical guide to basic environmental issues that are likely to arise in litigation. It includes information on international and comparative environmental law and references to relevant cases. Judges in each particular country will supplement this overview with more detailed information drawn from national experiences, laws and traditions.

UNEP’s Global Judges Programme was conceived in the context of strengthening the Rule of Law in the area of sustainable development. The Rule of Law comprises an intricately inter-linked chain of fundamental ideas including equality before the law, the independence of the judiciary, transparency, consistency and accountability in the administration of law and the notions of equity, justice and fairness. The Rule of Law is also essential for the realization of sustainable development, which itself is founded on equitably balancing environmental, social and economic considerations in decision-making at all levels.

This Handbook, and its companion, is designed to provide jurists with an overview of environmental constitutionalism: we address what it is, the peculiar practical and procedural issues it presents, and how courts from around the globe have engaged it.

This Handbook is designed to provide jurists with an overview of environmental constitutionalism: we address what it is, the peculiar practical and procedural issues it presents, and how courts from around the globe have engaged it.

This Handbook is designed to provide jurists with an overview of environmental constitutionalism: we address what it is, the peculiar practical and procedural issues it presents, and how courts from around the globe have engaged it. Environmental constitutionalism is a relatively recent phenomenon at the confluence of constitutional law, international law, human rights, and environmental law.

The Training Curriculum and Manual on Environmental Law for Judges and Magistrates in Africa is a generic guide for judicial training institutions and programmes containing the key minimum course content. The training curriculum provides a generic regional curriculum with principles, norms, procedural requirements and guidelines within which judiciary institutions can develop tailor made curricula and action plans.