The Non-Compliance Mechanism Under the Aarhus Convention as ‘Soft’ Enforcement of International Environmental Law: Not So Soft After All!

This article engages in the exercise of measuring the ‘degree of judiciality’ of the Non-Compliance Mechanism under the Aarhus Convention by looking at the legal effect of its findings and recommendations and considering, amongst other things, the effect of Article 31(3)(a) and (b) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The article also looks at the procedure of the hearings before the Compliance Committee and at the application of the domestic remedies rule especially in comparison with the human rights systems (ECtHR and IACtHR). It concludes that, at least with regard to these three features, the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee has become an enforcement mechanism capable of generating decisions with legal effect, rather than a ‘soft remedy’. T.M.C. Asser Press 2018