Abstract Environmental impact assessment (EIA) promotes considered and participatory decision-making, which can delay development and, at times, lead to projects being temporarily halted or permanently discontinued. Over the past decade, governments in a number of jurisdictions have proposed ‘streamlining’ reforms to eliminate perceived causes of unnecessary delays and stoppages. A target of these reforms has been environmental citizen suits (ECS): legal or merits-review proceedings initiated by private parties to uphold public environmental rights or interests for predominantly public purposes in order to generate public environmental benefits. This article reports the results of an empirical analysis of delays and stoppages attributable to ECSs in the NSW Land & Environment Court over the period 2008 to 2015. Key findings include: 109 finalised ECSs were identified over the period; 33 of the determined ECSs were successful (broadly defined); in 27 of the 33 successful ECSs, the activity that was the subject of the proceedings was subsequently approved or otherwise allowed to proceed; and the median major project delay caused by ECSs was 4.4 months. The results suggest the claims ECSs significantly hinder economic growth by delaying and stopping development are largely baseless. ECSs were relatively uncommon, rarely stopped development, and rarely caused major project delays.

中文翻译：

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延误、停工和上诉：对新南威尔士州土地和环境法院环境公民诉讼不利影响的实证评估

摘要 环境影响评估 (EIA) 促进深思熟虑和参与式决策，这可能会延迟开发，有时会导致项目暂时停止或永久停止。在过去十年中，许多司法管辖区的政府提出了“精简”改革，以消除不必要的延误和停工的可察觉原因。这些改革的目标是环境公民诉讼 (ECS)：由私人发起的法律或案情审查程序，以维护公共环境权利或利益，主要是为了公共目的，以产生公共环境利益。本文报告了 2008 年至 2015 年期间新南威尔士州土地和环境法院对 ECS 造成的延误和停工的实证分析结果。主要发现包括：在此期间确定了 109 个最终的 ECS；确定的 ECS 中有 33 个是成功的（广义上的）；在 33 个成功的 ECS 中，有 27 个，作为诉讼主题的活动随后获得批准或以其他方式被允许继续进行；ECS 造成的重大项目延误的中位数为 4.4 个月。结果表明，声称 ECS 通过延迟和停止发展来显着阻碍经济增长在很大程度上是毫无根据的。ECS 相对不常见，很少停止开发，也很少造成重大项目延误。4个月。结果表明，声称 ECS 通过延迟和停止发展来显着阻碍经济增长在很大程度上是毫无根据的。ECS 相对不常见，很少停止开发，也很少造成重大项目延误。4个月。结果表明，声称 ECS 通过延迟和停止发展来显着阻碍经济增长在很大程度上是毫无根据的。ECS 相对不常见，很少停止开发，也很少造成重大项目延误。