Jessica Stubenrauch, Felix Ekardt

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 19 (2021), Issue 4, Page 406 - 425

In various EU Member States such as Sweden, France and Denmark, national restrictions and bans on chemicals such as microplastics, BPA and PFAS have recently been introduced. The background in each case was incomplete regulation at EU level or regulation that is only expected in the future. Based on an overview of the scientific debate, this study presents these approaches and examines their transferability to Germany. In general, this is largely the case; at least provisional measures are possible based on the various EU secondary legislation acts and Articles 114, 193 and 34 TFEU. However, in order to avoid ecologically disadvantageous substance substitutions, possible alternative and equally dangerous (or even more dangerous) substances would have to be co-regulated. In the long term, EU-wide regulations remain more effective, also because otherwise spatial shifting effects are conceivable.

Jessica Stubenrauch, Beatrice Garske, Felix Ekardt

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 16 (2018), Issue 3, Page 325 - 335

The scarcity of Phosphorus (P) is a global concern which is not restricted to Western industrialised nations. To date, most countries in the world are highly dependent on importing scarce mineral P fertiliser for agriculture. This contribution examines the industrialised country Germany, the emerging country Costa Rica and the developing country Nicaragua with regard to their legislation in the field of environmental protection and agriculture, in particular with regard to soil protection and fertiliser law. Based on the structure of agriculture in the individual countries, deficits in control in the legislation, which is largely determined by regulatory law, are identified and compared. It becomes clear that soil protection in all three countries has not yet been sufficiently legally standardised and at the same time the control effect with regard to the efficient use of organic or recycled P fertilisers instead of (finite) mineral P fertilisers is inadequate. In particular, frugality, i.e. the strategy of lower (and not only more efficient) consumption of P fertilisers, has so far played no role in land-use governance.