Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an important environmental protection tool introduced into the environmental governance framework to evaluate and inform the administrative decision-making processes regarding whether certain developments or projects are to be allowed. In this article, EIA’s legal status and procedure are examined in relation to a Middle Eastern context, specifically to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Two different types of analysis are employed. The first is doctrinal analysis, focusing on the legal and statutory provisions regulating and organising this environmental protection tool—this genre of analysis entails identifying and unpacking the laws and regulations that govern this tool. The second type is qualitative analysis involving original data from 27 semi-structured interviews—one of the first of its kind on this topic in the KSA. The key contribution of the article comprises the examination and synthesis of the current status of different theories in the current international literature with regard to the underexplored issue of EIAs in the KSA.

中文翻译：

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环境影响评估：中东经验

环境影响评估（EIA）是引入环境治理框架的重要环境保护工具，用于评估和告知行政决策过程是否允许某些开发或项目。在本文中，EIA 的法律地位和程序在中东背景下进行了审查，特别是沙特阿拉伯王国 (KSA)。采用了两种不同类型的分析。首先是理论分析，重点关注规范和组织这种环境保护工具的法律和法规条款——这种分析类型需要识别和解开管理该工具的法律和法规。第二种类型是定性分析，涉及来自 27 次半结构化访谈的原始数据——这是 KSA 中关于该主题的第一个此类访谈。这篇文章的主要贡献包括审查和综合当前国际文献中不同理论在沙特阿拉伯环境影响评估中未被充分探索的问题的现状。