Participation of representatives of the wider public as third parties in proceedings in international bodies as a growing trend?

Hana Müllerová: Participation of Third Parties in Proceedings in International Bodies in Environmental Matters

 The environment protection is a sphere where pressure to enable participation of the wider public (namely, ecological non-governmental organizations) in various types of proceedings has existed for more than three decades and has brought numerous results on international and national scale. The contribution will introduce the main legal frameworks based on which this happens, will provide examples of the most advanced control mechanism that has ever been introduced on the level of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe – the control mechanism of the Aarhus Convention, will scrutinize the option of non-governmental organizations to participate in proceedings in the Court of Justice of the EU, and will ponder as to whether the extension of rights of representatives of a wider public, that is, in fact, in relation to the subject of third-party proceedings, may amount to a trend the signs of which can also be expected in other spheres outside the environment protection and in other international forums.

Monika Feigerlová: Position of Civil Society in International Investment Disputes

The contribution will introduce the current development of options of participation of persons different from the parties to a dispute in international arbitration proceedings. Lately, it has been possible to notice a frequent request for, and emphasis on, hearing the interests of a wider civil society when it comes to foreign investment protection disputes, relating, in particular, to the issue of environment protection, public health, human rights or other public interest issues, and enabling a certain form of participation for third parties in proceedings as the so-called amicus curiae. Over the last decade, the practice of arbitration tribunals regarding the admission of amici curiae reports has undergone an express anchorage in the arbitration rules of all significant arbitration institutions.

 Discussion

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