Environmental law terms: getting through the legal language labyrinth
A unique collection of standard definitions for environmental risk assessment terminology in EU legislation is now available.
The new study provides the most elaborate and state-of-the-art review of eu legislation from the position of terminology related to environmental risk assessment.
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” – Mark Twain
Without uniform terminology for environmental assessment, scientists, water managers, government agencies and NGOs can find themselves unable to communicate effectively over the smallest of issues. This lack of standard definitions hinders development, concerted scientific research and harmonised actions for environmental risk assessment and mitigation in the Danube Basin, and indeed in Europe.
A new study presents the most thorough review of environmental assessment terminology in EU legislation to ICPDR experts and non-experts alike. The final report of the study will be published in research articles and available soon on the ICPDR website, and will allow various stakeholders from across the entire Danube River Basin to start speaking the same language.
Tripping over terminology. Risk assessment is a support tool helping decision-makers estimate the probable damage of human activity. Risk assessment is gaining wide recognition, after hazard estimation and environmental impact assessment, and EU legislation now requests risk assessment in the context of human
health and ecosystem protection.
Efficient environmental protection and water management requires legislation with a definition of basic terms at the core
Risk assessment is characterised by a wide diversity of terms and definitions used both in the scientific literature and in a technical and legislative context. However, efficient environmental protection and water management requires legislation with a definition of basic terms at the core, especially for the body of EU law. So it is crucial to know if the definitions given in various EU directives are the same, or if they overlap or contradict one another.
Gathering a shared vocabulary. The new study provides the most elaborate and state-of-the-art review of EU legislation from the position of terminology related to environmental risk assessment. More than 40 operative legislative documents relevant to environmental risk assessment were reviewed and the results include more than 500 definitions of 440 unique terms. The resulting digital directory gives the definitions in various directives, and provides the links and statistics of definitions such as the number of occurrences or the number of connections to other directives.
In addition to revealing overlaps in legislation at the level of basic terminology, the interactive vocabulary allows the user to identify those directives that are referred to most by other legislation, thus providing strong sources for recognised terminology.
The environmental legislation labyrinth. After establishing a list of relevant directives and regulations as well as a glossary of the legal definitions of the documents, research on the varying connections among the definitions and the source directives was carried out. The list of EU legal documents, primarily directives, was studied and additional operative or reference legislation was added to the list. Reference to other directives can indicate very strong connections, such as adopting the same definition word-forword, or simple legal notes such as ‘repeals’, ‘helps the implementation’ or ‘amendment’. These kinds of correlations were identified in all of the documents in the new database.
The results of the new study provide an overview of frequently used terminology and identify possible overlaps or gaps among risk-assessment-related definitions. How can the environmental practitioner be guided to an ‘environmental quality standard’ if there is no definition of the term ‘environment’ in the relevant legal document? Although it is impossible, and indeed unnecessary, to have an explanation of every single term used in a directive, this new study will contribute to the standardisation of these terms.
uNDeRsTaNDINg DeFINITIoNs
It is interesting to look at the terms ‘dangerous substance’ and ‘pollutant’. There are four definitions available for ‘pollutant’ in related EU legislation. According to the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), “pollutant means any substance liable to cause pollution, in particular those listed in Annex VII”. And according to the Air Directive (2008/50/EC), “Pollutant shall mean any substance present in ambient air and likely to have harmful effects on human health and/or the environment as a whole”. This definition is quite similar to that in the Air Framework Directive (96/62/EC), which says “pollutant shall mean any substance introduced directly or indirectly by man into the ambient air and likely to have harmful effects on human health and/or the environment as a whole”. In the E-PRTR Regulation (No 166/2006) we find the following: “pollutant means a substance or a group of substances that may be harmful to the environment or to human health on account of its properties and of its introduction into the environment”. Does ‘harmful’ mean ‘dangerous’ in this context? In these definitions of ‘harmful’ human health only is indicated, with no reference to the expressions of ‘dangerous’ or ‘pollutant’.
What does ‘substance’ mean, one of the most basic terms in environmental management? Substance is defined as “any chemical element and its compounds, with the exception of radioactive substances” by E-PRTR Regulation, but it is defined as “a chemical element and its compounds in the natural state or obtained by any manufacturing process, including any additive necessary to preserve its stability and any impurity deriving from the process used, but excluding any solvent which may be separated without affecting the stability of the substance or changing its composition”, by the REACH Regulation (No 793/93). Other characteristics of substances occur frequently in EU legislation as well, such as “active, basic, carcinogenic, corrosive, dangerous, existing, explosive, flammable, extremely flammable or highly flammable, harmful, hazardous, irritant, mutagenic, not chemically modified, notified, oxidising, ozone precursor, phase-in, priority, radioactive, sensitising, toxic or very toxic”. A scientific harmonisation of terminology related to substances is vital.
