'Environment court' could help protect nature<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The establishment of a special court is helpful
\nin coping with the increasing number of violations of
\nenvironmental protection laws, a visiting Australian judge said
\nyesterday.<\/p>\n
\"The increasing number of industrious activities in developing
\ncountries brings forward problems, which require a special and
\nsovereign institution to settle the environmental disputes,\"
\nJustice Paul L. Stein AM of the Land and Environment Court of New
\nSouth Wales, Australia, said.<\/p>\n
He told participants at a discussion entitled The Proactive
\nRole of the Court in Protecting the Environment, organized by the
\nIndonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), that the
\nsovereign institution needed was a special environmental court,
\ndifferent from ordinary courts in practice.<\/p>\n
\"Judges of an environmental court have a specific way of
\nmaking decisions on a dispute being heard,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The New South Wales Land and Environment Court, established in
\n1980, has special authority to hear environmental disputes,
\nincluding matters of environmental protection, the city master
\nplan, waste management, poisonous materials, air, land, and water
\npollution, coast protection, ozone layer protection, as well as
\nthe control of biological organisms.<\/p>\n
Stein said that judges of the environmental court could not
\nmake a decision on an environmental dispute until an evaluation
\nhas been carried out by the court's technical assessors.<\/p>\n
\"Common judges certainly do not have sufficient knowledge
\nabout the environment and must include technical considerations
\nin their decisions,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that not all environmental disputes were decided by
\nthe court. The court provides a mediation service that will bring
\nthe parties in dispute into a confidential meeting and help them
\nto settle the dispute among themselves.<\/p>\n
\"The compromise which results from the meeting has firm legal
\nforce because all of the disputing parties have agreed to the
\nsolution,\" he said, adding that the mediation sessions had a 70
\npercent success rate.<\/p>\n
He said that the Land and Environment Court operated under an
\nopen standing system, which allowed any person or institution to
\nsue any individual or organization violating environmental laws.
\n(imn)<\/p>",
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