Civil associations participation in governing relevant to environment protection

This thesis deals with participation of non-governmental organizations in environmental decision-making and grounds this phenomenon in legal framework of public participation in the international, communitarian and Czech scale and more broadly in the context of democracy and the role civil society in it. On the basis of legal regulations of NGOs participation in the Water Act and in Law on Integrated Prevention and the actual functioning of administrative proceedings brought under these laws, examines the implementation of requirements resulting from Aarhus Convention, especifically its Article 6, in the Czech legislation and practice. The thesis also asks for the causes of inconsistencies between the requirements of the Aarhus Convention and the real course of administrative proceedings, and examines critically the democratic decision-making processes