Eclosión y crisis del Derecho ambiental

Abstract

Environmental law has undergone a stunning development since its origins in the mid 20th century, and yet, it can be said that it is a law «in crisis», because it has not been able to halt the process of destruction of our ecosystem, which is itself a product of the destructive nature of modern civilization. The alarm signs have given ways to proofs, and meanwhile climate change has become an acute problem on a global scale. The international judicial tools, weakened by the lack of mandatory application of the rules, are insufficient to resolve these problems, which has led that in some productive sectors whose natural resources run a risk of collapse (such as wood or fishing), those same business apply instruments of business self-regulation that today are ever more extended, and backed by public authority. The environmental law of the European Union has made improvements in some concrete areas, but it has not managed to develop the region in harmony with the preservation of its natural resources, and it suffers from a serious lack of application by its member states. At the moment, in countries such as Spain the public authorities are making a remarkable effort to attain an effective fulfilment of the environmental norms, but still lacking sufficient citizen awareness about the necessity and urgency of adopting effective measures to halt the process of «global degradation» of our planet.