Personality rights
Engaging personality rights in favour of the environment seems to be a promising new approach that has shown its first good results in Poland. However, these rights are usually related to individuals and not groups or NGOs, so their contribution to collective redress is debattable.
In the Czech Republic, the new Civil Code explicitly introduced the protection of the right to live in a favourable environment within the scope of personality rights. However, there has been no case law on that yet. Moreover, the personality rights are again predominantly rights of individuals; their collective application is thus also open to debate.
In the field of personality rights in Poland, the interpretation of protected values has been recently extended with certain environmental elements (contrary to the previous interpretation) in relation to a well-known air quality plans case opened by a Polish actress, Grazyna Wolszczak. Article 23 of the Civil Code that enumerates the rights of persons does not explicitly mention the environment. The plaintiff claimed that the bad air quality barred her from pursuing her passions and interests and made her often feel mental and emotional discomfort, which resulted in the breach of her personal interests, such as the possibility to use the attributes of an unspoiled environment, the right to protect personal life, the right to freedom, privacy and respect for her place of residence. The District Court recognised that the state of environmental pollution and the lack of effective actions on the side of public authorities have had an unfavourable impact on people's health and life, including the plaintiff’s and that the rights under Article 23 include the right to live in an environment fulfilling at least the norms and values defined in the EU law. Not only did the court conclude that a personal right to a clean environment exists but it also stated that breaching it is possible also when no physical damage to the person’s health is inflicted.