Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/64653
Title: The Environment Protection Act, 1991 and the right of future generations to a healthy environment
Authors: Aquilina, Kevin
Keywords: Environmental management -- Malta
Environmental protection -- Planning
Environmental responsibility -- Malta
Sustainable development -- Malta
Issue Date: 1991
Publisher: Għaqda Studenti tal-Liġi
Citation: Aquilina, K. (1991). The Environment Protection Act, 1991 and the right of future generations to a healthy environment. Id-Dritt, 16, 70-75.
Abstract: Act No. V of 1991, the Environment Protection Act, recognises in section 2 thereof future generations so much so that it imposes certain burdens therein defined on the Government of Malta to safeguard the interests of future generations. Although the Government of Malta has to fulfil certain duties, no adequate machinery is set up by Act No. V of 1991 to provide for safeguarding the interests of future generations. Future generations, like animals, cannot defend their interests at the present moment in time for they lack the necessary structures to do so. Indeed, Maltese Law does not impose any obligation on present generations to bequeath to future generations a healthy environment. Again, future generations, due to their physical inexistence, cannot protect or safeguard their interests by, say, instituting court proceedings against the Government of Malta or any individual whomsoever it may be who may be contravening their right to a healthy environment. In the same way that animals cannot put pressure on the government of the day to enact into Maltese Law the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights, future generations presently have no vote to cast so as to induce political parties to formulate and implement a charter of intergenerational rights of humankind into Maltese law when in government. Contrary to Act V of 1991 which leaves the matter in suspended animation, I intend to show that it is possible to create legal structures to enforce and safeguard the right of future generations to a healthy environment, and I shall do so by exploring five different ways of attaining such a goal.
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/64653
Appears in Collections:Id-Dritt : Volume 16 : 1991
Id-Dritt : Volume 16 : 1991



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