In accordance with Article 15 of the Aarhus Convention, the first meeting of the parties to this Convention established a non-judicial and consultative Compliance Committee to consider, among other matters, individual cases concerning compliance by parties with their obligations. The Committee is traditionally viewed as a non-judicial, soft mechanism and its rulings as non-binding, soft law. In recent years, however, to support the claim that rulings of the Committee have an impact and legal effects, some scholars have departed from the traditional perspective and characterized the Committee as a more judicialized mechanism, which issues legally binding rulings.This characterization assumes a correlation between judicialization and binding effect on the one hand, and legal effect on the other. The latter claim, however, has not been supported by a systematic assessment of the impact of the Committee's rulings on domestic practice. Against this background, the article assesses the impact of Article 9-related rulings of the Committee, issued between 2004 and 2012, on national legal orders. The assessment reveals that in fewer than 41% of the cases parties recorded some degree of compliance with the rulings of the Committee, whereas in 59% they recorded no progress. The quantitative assessment and respective qualitative insights, among other factors, suggest that the normative character of the Committee and its rulings play an auxiliary role in the process of ensuring compliance with the provisions of the Aarhus Convention. The decision of parties to comply is determined typically by the substance of the rulings as they stand in relation to domestic circumstances rather than by the institutional features of the Committee and binding effect of its rulings.

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非司法、咨询、但有影响力？奥胡斯公约合规委员会作为通向环境正义的门户

根据《奥胡斯公约》第 15 条，该公约缔约方第一次会议成立了一个非司法和协商的履约委员会，除其他事项外，审议有关缔约方履约情况的个别案件。委员会传统上被视为非司法、软机制，其裁决是不具约束力的软法律。然而，近年来，为了支持委员会的裁决具有影响和法律效力的说法，一些学者脱离了传统的观点，将委员会描述为一个更加司法化的机制，发布具有法律约束力的裁决。一方面是司法化与约束力的相关性，另一方面是法律效力的相关性。然而，后者的主张，委员会的裁决对国内实践的影响没有得到系统评估的支持。在此背景下，本文评估了委员会在 2004 年至 2012 年间发布的与第 9 条相关的裁决对国家法律秩序的影响。评估显示，在不到 41% 的案件中，当事方在一定程度上遵守了委员会的裁决，而在 59% 的案件中，他们没有取得任何进展。除其他因素外，定量评估和各自的定性见解表明，委员会的规范性及其裁决在确保遵守《奥胡斯公约》规定的过程中发挥了辅助作用。