Lasse Baaner

The Programme of Measures of the Water Framework Directive – More than just a Formal Compliance Tool

This article explores the requirements of the Water Framework Directive with regard to the programme of measures for achieving environmental objectives. It analyses Article 11 of the directive and other legal provisions concerning the content of the programme, and identifies four kind of provisions: provisions for including measures for achieving environmental objectives, provisions for including measures for fulfi lling other obligations in the Water Framework Directive, provisions for including measures for fulfi lling obligations in other environmental directives, and provisions concerning the legal design of the Member States’ water management. This article concludes that a number of the provisions in Article 11 direct the legal design of the Member States’ water management in greater detail than that which follows from the obligation to achieve the environmental objectives of Article 4 of the directive, and that the freedom to decide on how to attain the environmental objectives of the directive is limited thereby.

Spatiality of Environmental Law

Digital society challenges the traditional perception of legal sources. The use of maps as a basis for public administration dates far back, but e-Government’s use of digital maps that include legal information creates new legal obstacles. In the coming decades, the inspire directive of 2007 will determine the interplay between geographic data and technology in the fields of environmental legislation, environmental policy and environmental management. This article examines the legal regulation of spatial information as established by the inspire directive, on one hand, and on the other hand, examines legal regulation as spatial information. It aims to deepen the understanding of spatiality as a core element of environmental law, and to connect it to the basic concept of representation used in giscience. It concludes that the future path for e-Government demands a shift in legal paradigm, from maps showing representations of applied legal norms, to maps build on datasets that have legal authority. That will integrate legal and geographic information systems, and improve the legal accountability of decision support systems used in e-Government services based on spatio-legal data.