Public participatin in international environmental law principles and reflection in national law

In this dissertation, the principle of public participation that is one of the principles of international environmental law is examined. The Environment is increasingly contaminated in the development process and the impact of environmental pollution on human life is increasing at the same rate. Protection policies have been established in order to protect the environment and the existence of common benefit in environmental protection policies constitutes the need to involve the public in the making of these policies. Public participation principle is born from this need. The conceptual framework of access to information, participating in decision-making processes and access to justice that are components of the principle of public participation are addressed with the help of ECtHR decisions. We examine the principle of public participation, by looking at its place under the sources of public international law. With this evaluation, it is discussed how public participation will affect the environmental protection policies in the future and how much it will be binding on the states. An assessment of how the principle of public participation is regulated in binding and non-binding environmental law texts is made. The Aarhus Convention is a unique convention aimed at achieving the inclusion of public participation provisions in binding environmental law texts. Moreover, the proposal of a procedure allowing the participation of the public in the application process to the compliance committee provided for in the Convention reinforces the importance of the Convention. The way in which public participation takes place in Turkish law and its compliance with EU acquis is examined. In making this evaluation, we tried to determine the standards the Turkish Council of State uses to assess the conditions of interest necessary for the public to carry environmental affairs to the judiciary, and the standards used by the Council of State to assess this environmental affairs.