Resources
Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) v. Court of Appeals
The Supreme Court affirmed the right of environmental government agencies to issue urgent reliefs to meet the laudable objective of giving vitality to the constitutional right to environment.
Director of Forestry, et al. v. Muñoz, et al.
One of the first cases to acknowledge that forests constitute a vital segment of any country's natural resources and that denudation would result in ill effects for the environment.
Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. v. Jalos et al.
The Supreme Court recognized the harmful and deleterious effects of a Shell underwater gas pipeline to the marine life in Palawan.
Oposa v. Factoran
The Supreme Court enunciated the doctrine of inter-generational responsibility and the standing to sue in environmental cases of unborn children.
MMDA v. Concerned Residents of Manila Bay
The Supreme Court required government agencies to maintain the prescribed water quality standards of Manila Bay even in the absence of a specific pollution accident. The Court’s directives focused on three main areas: (i) prevention, control, and protection; (ii) prosecution and sanctions; and (iii) rehabilitation. To ensure compliance with the Court’s directives, it used the principle of continuing mandamus, which was not codified in Philippine statutes at the time of the case’s promulgation.
Tan v. Director of Forestry
The Supreme Court recognized the importance of forest resources and its exhaustibility.
Social Justice Society (SJS) et al. v. Atienza
The Supreme Court highlighted the importance of the environment as a vital public interest within the ambit of police power and general welfare on the level of local government units. Through this case, the Supreme Court was able to call on local government units to enact and implement rules to regulate acts that may create public health and environmental impacts.
Tano v. Socrates
The Supreme Court balanced two important values: (a) the right of subsistence fishermen in the utilization of the natural resources; and (b) the authority of the local government unit to protect marine resources
Ysmael v. the Deputy Executive Secretary, et al.
The Supreme Court took judicial notice of the profligate waste of the country's forest resources which had resulted in the irreversible loss of flora and fauna peculiar to the region, as well as caused disastrous and lasting economic and social effects.
Good Governance for Environmental Protection in China: Instrumentation, Strategic Interactions and Unintended Consequences Journal of Contemporary Asia 44.2 (2014): 241-258.
During the past decade, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has pursued a strategy of “extending governance” to the public by creating formal public participation channels and promoting environmental transparency. Rather than representing a normative end in their own right, these features of “good governance” are being used instrumentally by the political executive to enlist public support in enforcing environmental regulations, and to depoliticise dissent by channelling it through legal mechanisms.