Research on legal opportunity structures has focused on how existing law, standing rules, and the costs of litigation shape the likelihood that social movement groups will mobilize the law. Yet there has been relatively little research to show why and how legal opportunity structures change over time. This paper focuses on a case study of the mobilization of procedural environmental rights contained within the Aarhus Convention. It addresses the following empirical puzzle: how did rights that were designed to help Eastern Europeans achieve environmental democracy eventually contribute to a re-shaping of the structure of legal opportunities in Britain? Through a two-step historical process-tracing analysis that relies on a social constructivist theoretical approach, this research shows that environmental groups mobilized Aarhus rights in a number of ways and across different judicial venues, resulting in an evolution over time of the meaning of access to justice so that it included being “not prohibitively expensive.” This research builds on previous work to show that civil society agents are not passive agents situated within legal opportunity structures but instead are strategic actors who can develop and shape access to justice through policy entrepreneurialism and litigation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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塑造法律机会的结构：环保非政府组织将国际环境程序权利带回家

对法律机会结构的研究集中在现有法律、现行规则和诉讼成本如何影响社会运动团体动员法律的可能性上。然而，关于法律机会结构为何以及如何随时间变化的研究相对较少。本文重点研究了《奥胡斯公约》中包含的程序性环境权利动员的案例研究。它解决了以下实证难题：旨在帮助东欧人实现环境民主的权利最终如何有助于重塑英国法律机会的结构？通过依赖于社会建构主义理论方法的两步历史过程追溯分析，这项研究表明，环保团体以多种方式在不同的司法场所动员奥胡斯的权利，导致诉诸司法的含义随着时间的推移而演变，因此它包括“不至于过于昂贵”。这项研究建立在先前的工作基础上，表明公民社会代理人不是位于法律机会结构中的被动代理人，而是可以通过政策创业主义和诉讼来发展和塑造司法救助的战略参与者。本文受版权保护。版权所有。”这项研究建立在先前的工作基础上，表明公民社会代理人不是位于法律机会结构中的被动代理人，而是可以通过政策创业主义和诉讼来发展和塑造诉诸司法的途径的战略参与者。本文受版权保护。版权所有。”这项研究建立在先前的工作基础上，表明公民社会代理人不是位于法律机会结构中的被动代理人，而是可以通过政策创业主义和诉讼来发展和塑造诉诸司法的途径的战略参与者。本文受版权保护。版权所有。