Judicial Protection, Spatial Interventions and the Aarhus Convention

The article presents a doctoral thesis examining the impact and significance of Article 9 of the Aarhus Convention, despite its brevity, on the foundational principles of Slovenian constitutional jurisprudence. The author portrays the request for a special public role as a legal enhancement of the checks-and- balances system among different authorities, addressing dwindling civil so- ciety confidence that it alone (without the public) can ensure that "the state authority will be a good or sufficient guardian of the (healthy living) environ- ment and which emerges as a legal response to the ‘feeling’ of a democratic deficit”. This doctoral thesis marks the first comprehensive study of judicial protection against environmentally impactful decision-making in the spatial interventions, which – according to other decisions of the enforcement law – is characterised by a number of specifics.

Key words: Aarhus Convention, judicial protection, spatial intervention, civil society, environmental law, public.