THE EU FORUM OF JUDGES FOR THE ENVIRONMENT CELEBRATED ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY AT ITS ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2024 IN BUDAPEST!
The EU Forum of Judges for the Environment has its origins in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), that convened a meeting of Presidents of Supreme Courts and Chief Justices of the World during the August 2002 Johannesburg Summit or Rio + 10 Conference, the so called Global Judges Symposium that adopted the Johannesburg Principles on the Role of Law and Sustainable Development.
To implement the resolutions adopted at the end of the symposium an Ad Hoc planning meeting was held at UNEP’s Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya on 30-31 January 2003, that also included a delegation of judges from Europe. It was decided to set up regional judicial colloquia for the various parts of the world.
The EU judges present at that meeting, First President of the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) Guy CANIVET, Justice Amedeo POSTIGLIONE of the Supreme Court of Italy, Lord Justice Robert CARNWATH of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales (at that time) and myself expressed the wish to set up an judicial forum for the EU Member States.
It was agreed to check if that would respond to some demand from judges of other EU member states. 23 EU judges met on invitation of Justice Amedeo POSTIGLIONE in Rome on 9 May 2003 during the Symposium “Johannesburg Summit Next Steps: The Role of the Judiciary in the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law” and decided to establish a standing organisation for EU countries. It was decided to create an “association internationale sans but lucratif” under Belgian law, following the example of the organisation of Supreme Administrative Courts. The by-laws of the forum have been signed on 28 February 2004 by the four founding fathers and submitted for approval by the Belgian King trough the Minister of Justice.
The Forum inaugural meeting was held on 26 April 2004 with the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg and elected the first board composed of President Guy CANIVET, Vice-President: Amedeo POSTIGLIONE, Vice-President: Ulf BJALLAS (Sweden), Secretary-General: Robert CARNWATH, Treasurer: Luc LAVRYSEN, Auditor: Dragica WEDAM-LUKIC (Slovenia).
I am incredibly happy that some of them are here today in person or online because they were pioneering to bring our Forum into existence.
We started with twenty-one members, including observer members from Romania and Turkey.
In July 2004 we had a meeting with the European Commissioner for the Environment, at that time, Margot Wällstrom, to secure the support of the European Commission. Since than, it is the case. We have ever since been supported financially for our conferences and secretariat by the European Commission in different forms, most recently trough the Life+ funding in the form of a partnership agreement with IMPEL. Different other sponsors have made our work possible, including Belgium and Norway.
EUFJE Membership is open to every judge interested in environmental law who is member of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights or a court or tribunal of a Member State of the European Union, a Member State of the European Free Trade Association or of a former Member State of such an organisation, as well as any judicial or judges organisation in one of these states. Judges or courts of candidate EU Member States can be admitted as observers.
Judges or courts from third states may be accepted as associated members.
Members who retire as a judge can become honorary member. For the moment we have 125 members, 19 observer members, 11 associated members and 17 honorary members, over 170 in total, covering 43 countries and some international courts and tribunals.
DG Environment of the European Commission has supported all those years our activities by bringing their expertise to our conferences. We are very thankful to the commission officers for their continuous engagement.
We have organized every year since 2004 a conference, mostly in the member state of the EU holding the rotating presidency of the Council, on a variety of subjects of common interest as showed it the slides.
Furthermore, the Forum participates in the Global Judicial Institute on the Environment, the Task Force on Access to Justice under the Aarhus Convention and the EU Environmental Compliance and Governance Forum. The Forum co-operates with other environmental enforcement networks, in particular, IMPEL, ENPE and EnviCrimeNet. We are also co-operating with colleagues in Latin America and have set up the Bioval project, not to forget our representation at multiple activities organised by others.
Looking back to the past 20 years, we might say that we have contributed in a significant way to the fulfilment of our aims. We can say that environmental adjudication has improved. But the challenges remain. Although the environment is now in some respects better protected and in a better shape than 20 years ago, we are nevertheless confronted with an unprecedented triple planetary crises: climate change, loss of biodiversity, chemical pollution through persistent chemicals and plastics.
So, there is sufficient work for the next decades. I hope the forum can further grow in the period to come.
But let’s toast first on the past 20 years.
Prof. Dr. Em. Luc LAVRYSEN, President
Many thanks to ELTE University and the Constitutional Court of Hungary, to our passionate speakers and to all participants, on-site and online, for contributing to make this annual conference and the celebration of the 20th anniversary of EUFJE a convivial moment of sharing knowledge and experiences, and which showed a real eagerness to cooperate and strengthen the practice of environmental law by judges through such sharing and the rich discussions that resulted from it. The Annual Conference took place at ELTE University in Budapest, Hungary (hybrid), on 18 and 19 October 2024.
The theme of the conference was "Human Rights Approach to the Protection of the Environment and Future Generations":
- We hosted presentations by Representatives from the EU Commission, the Aarhus Compliance Committee, the Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, and the Ombudsman for Future Generations of Hungary.
- We also heard about case law and experiences from Judges from the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, as well as on pending advisory opinions of ICJ and ITLOS, and on experiences from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
- Turning to EU national jurisdictions as well as some associated members' jurisdictions, we had a presentation by Dr. Katalin Sulyok, Chief Legal Advisor at the Office of the Ombudsman for Future Generations and Associate Professor in International Environmental Law and Climate Law at ELTE Law School in Budapest, of the outcomes of a questionnaire that we sent to our members in order to understand what recent developments were occurring on Human Rights Approach to the Protection of the Environment and Future Generations.
- Finally, we exchanged on case law with judges from Germany, Hungary, France, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ukraine. We also heard a presentation on the BIOVAL tool, an indicative tool to value damage to nature in court, as a tool contributing to enforcing the right to a healthy environment.
You will find the detailed programme here.
A report of the outcomes of the questionnaire will be prepared by Dr. Katalin Sulyok and published on this page shortly.
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We are pleased to announce the launch of the BIOVAL tool website! Please check it out at https://biovaltool.eu/
BIOVAL is a joint project of EUFJE, IMPEL (the EU Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law), and ENPE (the European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment), and is funded by the European Commission. The project started in 2020 in order to develop and disseminate an indicative tool to value damage to nature in court, i.e. to help legal professionals calculate a financial compensation for damage to nature when restoration in natura is not possible. Without prejudice to the Environmental Liability Directive, BIOVAL is based upon the principles of environmental liability and “the polluter pays”, and contributes to reaching the goals of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020-2030 of improving enforcement and restoring nature. In line with the requirements of Directive 2024/1203 of 11 April 2024 on the protection of the environment through criminal law it provides authorities a tool to calculate financial compensation when damage to nature is irreversible or cannot be restored by the offender.
The BIOVAL methodology was developed with the expertise of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek – INBO). The BIOVAL tool website explains this methodology, and provides an indicative list of values for 100 species of vertebrates in the Flemish region of Belgium (assessment to be extended to other regions, countries and to habitats). It also features a database of case law that uses the BIOVAL tool to assess compensation for nature damage in court.
We will regularly update our Agenda with any events or trainings on BIOVAL.
Please feel free to contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any question about the BIOVAL tool.
Please also check out this article about BIOVAL:
The European Union Forum of Judges for the Environment (EUFJE) was created in 2004.
The objective of the Forum is to contribute to better implementation and enforcement of national, European and international environmental law:
- by contributing to a better knowledge of environmental law among judges,
- by sharing case law, and
- by sharing experience in the area of training of the judiciary in environmental law.
EUFJE
Koningsplein 7
1000 Brussels
Belgium
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