Citizen Participation in Environmental Enforcement – New Developments in U.S. and German Laws

The U.S. Congress introduced this form of law enforcement quite early. In the 1960s and 1970s, Congress hoped to counteract the relatively weak political influence of private beneficiaries by means of citizen suits.3 Association actions were introduced in the Federal Republic of Germany for similar reasons, but not before the 1990s. First the states paved the way for legal actions taken by associations, and later the federal legislature allowed for this kind of litigation by means of an amendment to the Federal Nature Conservation Law (Bundesnaturschutzgesetz).4 However, in recent years contrasting developments in the uses of this tool have been apparent in both countries. The fate of the citizen suit provisions of the U.S. law has been determined by several decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court, in which the court restricted the legislature's power to create citizen suits.5 By contrast, in Germany the scope of the association actions has increased steadily. Reasons given for the extension of this legislative tool in Germany include developments in international law and the decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) of May 12, 2011.6 In the first part of this article (section II), the development of private participation in environmental litigation in the U.S. and in Germany will be examined.