영국의 환경정보공개에 관한 법제 연구

Abstract

Access to environmental information is one of basic civil rights; moreover, it plays a role in improving environment protection through the public participation. Most of developed countries in Europe have independent laws and regulation which provide access to environmental information for EC Directives and Aarhus convention. Korean, like the US, does not have an independent law related access to environmental information; however, Korean government has prepared to legislate such laws. This paper explores the UK Environmental Information Regulation 2004 in order to introduces UK experience of those areas. Therefore, this paper review not only UK environmental informational disclosure legal system but also UK experience such as case laws and government guidance law. The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) is a UK statutory instrument that provides a statutary right of access to environmental information held by UK public authorities. The regulations came into force on 1 January 2005. According to the regulation, environmental information includes information about air, water, soil, land, flora and fauna, energy, noise, waste and emissions. Environmental Information also includes information about decisions, policies and activities that affect the environment. The coverage of the Environmental Information Regulations is greater than that of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Freedom of Information Act sets out a list of the bodies and classes of bodies that are public authorities, the EIR is less prescriptive. There are two institutions for its implementation; the Information Commissioner and the Information Tribunal. The exemptions that public sector authorities can claim under the Regulations are structured somewhat differently as well. In many cases they are narrower in their scope and application. Public authorities have 20 working days from the receipt of a request to provide the information to the requester. When we prepare the legislation of environmental information acts, it is necessary to review not only the law and regulation but also UK's experience such as court's case. Moreover, it is necessary to establish the independent institution which would be appeal body deciding disclosure of environmental information.