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Adjudicating Sustainability: New Zealand's Environment Court And ADJUDICATING SUSTAINABILITY ______________________________________ NEW ZEALAND’S ENVIRONMENT COURT AND THE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ACT Prepared by Bret Birdsong With funding from the sponsors of the Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowship in Public Policy October 1998 © Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowship in Public Policy Table of Contents PREFACE ...................................................................................................................................iii I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1 II. AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ACT.....................................................3 A. THE OLD WORLD VIEW - ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN NZ BEFORE 1991.......................................3 B. EMERGING GLOBAL CONCEPTS OF SUSTAINABILITY .............................................................................5 C. THE MAKING OF THE RMA AND THE RMLR PROCESS ........................................................................6 D. THE RMA FRAMEWORK: SOME THEMES OF SUSTAINABILITY ..............................................................7 1. Sustainable Management............................................................................................................7 2. Effects Based Management .........................................................................................................8 3. Promotion of Public Participation................................................................................................9 E. THE RMA FRAMEWORK: INSTITUTIONS AND INSTRUMENTS................................................................ 11 1. National Institutions and Instruments ......................................................................................... 11 2. Regional and Territorial Authorities and Instruments .................................................................... 12 3. Resource Consents.................................................................................................................. 13 4. Appeals and References ........................................................................................................... 15 III. THE STRUCTURE OF ENVIRONMENT COURT LITIGATION UNDER THE RMA ................ 16 A. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENT COURT ............................................................................. 16 B. THE POWERS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ENVIRONMENT COURT UNDER THE RMA..................................... 18 1. The Power to Make Declarations............................................................................................... 18 2. The Power to Decide References and Appeals .............................................................................. 19 3. The Power to Issue Enforcement Orders...................................................................................... 20 C. THE NATURE OF ENVIRONMENT COURT ADJUDICATION..................................................................... 21 1. The Structure of the Environment Court ...................................................................................... 21 2. De Novo Standard of Review..................................................................................................... 22 3. The Public Law Nature of Environment Court Proceedings............................................................. 23 4. Appeal from Environment Court Decisions .................................................................................. 24 D. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION....................................................................................................... 25 IV. THE SUBSTANCE OF SUSTAINABILITY: ENVIRONMENT COURT TREATMENT OF FUNDAMENTAL RMA THEMES................................................................................................ 26 A. INTERPRETING SUSTAINABILITY: DEFINING SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT ............................................ 26 1. The Priority of Part II.............................................................................................................. 27 2. The Meaning of Sustainable Management.................................................................................... 29 B. EFFECTS BASED MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................... 33 1. Plans as Effects Based Instruments ............................................................................................ 34 2. Resource Consents and Environmental Impact Assessment ............................................................. 37 3. The Duty to Avoid, Remedy, or Mitigate Adverse Effects................................................................. 39 4. The Precautionary Principle and Proof of Environmental Effects..................................................... 41 C. PROMOTING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION .............................................................................................. 43 1. Standing ............................................................................................................................... 43 2. Notification ........................................................................................................................... 44 3. Awarding of Costs against Unsuccessful Litigants......................................................................... 46 V. SOME THOUGHTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL ADJUDICATION IN NEW ZEALAND ................. 50 A. OBSERVATIONS ON THE SUBSTANTIVE THEMES OF SUSTAINABILITY..................................................... 50 1. The Meaning of Sustainable Management.................................................................................... 50 2. The Meaning of Effects Based Management ................................................................................. 51 3. Promoting Public Participation................................................................................................. 52 B. OBSERVATIONS ON THE ROLE OF THE ENVIRONMENT COURT .............................................................. 54 1. De Novo Review of Environmental Decisions ............................................................................... 54 2. The Use of a Specialist, Expert Tribunal...................................................................................... 55 C. THE MINISTER’S PROPOSALS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT COURT ............................................................ 55 1. The Minister’s Proposed Changes.............................................................................................. 55 2. Judicial Review of Federal Action in the United States................................................................... 57 3. A Hybrid Approach for New Zealand’s Environment Court............................................................. 59 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................................................................................. 61 ii PREFACE Adjudicating Sustainability: The Environment Court and New Zealand’s Resource Management Act is the final report of my Ian Axford Fellowship programme. It reflects my interest, as an environmental litigator, in the legal framework and institutions under the RMA. I chose to focus on the Environment Court for two primary reasons. First, the environment Court is an institution quite unlike any in the United States and is therefore one from which lessons might be drawn. Second, as the primary adjudicator of legal and factual issues that arise under the RMA, it is well place to guide, through its decisions, a grand tour of the RMA and its mechanisms. Although this report is more a review than a critique of the RMA and the Environment Court, I hope this report--particularly the final chapter--will provide some useful cross-national insight into the nature of environmental adjudication in New Zealand. In the closing weeks of my fellowship programme, my choice of topics proved to be somewhat fortuitous, if not prescient. The Minister for the Environment publicly announced that he intends to pursue significant changes to the Environment Court as part of a package of amendments to improve the implementation of the RMA. Having completed a study tour of the RMA through the eyes of the Environment Court, I share some thoughts about the Minister’s proposals from my customary vantage point in the trenches of American environmental litigation. These views are contained in the concluding chapter. All the views expressed in this report reflect my own work and opinions. They do not represent the views or positions of the Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowship in Public Policy or its public or private sponsors, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (my New Zealand host institution), or the United States Department of Justice (my employer). The Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowship in Public Policy was announced by the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jim Bolger, on 4 July 1995. The Fellowship programme is named after Professor Sir Ian Axford, the eminent New Zealand astrophysicist. The Fellowship is a joint public sector-private sector initiative which provides mid-career opportunities for outstanding American professionals to study, travel, and gain practical experience in public policy in New Zealand. The Fellowship programme complements the long-standing Harkness Fellowship program funded by the Commonwealth Fund of New York. Both programmes are administered in New Zealand by the United States-New
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