Legal Regulation of the Right to a Healthy Living Environment in Slovenia and Case law of Slovenian Courts

ABSTRACT : The paper deals with regulation of the right to a healthy living environment in the Slovenianlegal order. Human have changed and adapted their natural environment up to a degree where the negativeimpact of their manmade alterations on their living environment exceeds the impact of natural phenomena. Inorder to prevent the environmental catastrophe that threatens us, we have to establish adequate legal protectionof the environment. The right to a healthy living environment is regulated in Article 72 of the Constitution of theRepublic of Slovenia, which is the highest legal act in the Republic of Slovenia. The right is not a part of thehuman rights charter, but the constitutional court of the Republic of Slovenia has acknowledged its nature as ahuman right. The right is regulated in the Environment Protection Act and the Obligations Code. An individualwho is directly affected by excessive environment interventions may start certain permitting procedures orinitiate a procedure to stop the intervention in the environment. The case law in this area is well developed,appearing mostly as the compensation for noise and odor immissions.

Keywords -environmental intervention, human right, principle of protection of rights, right to a health livingenvironment