decisions chosen would give some clues for forthcoming court cases by highlighting important points to use.
Two prominent concepts that are used as the basis for decisions are public
interest and the right to environment. Public interest is a controversial concept and
different interpretations of the concept lead to different results. As there is no
common definition of public interest (Tezcan/Poyraz 2013), its interpretation in a
case depends on the judge of the case. At this point, economic and social good
mostly conflict with each other. For example, while hydroelectric power plants are
economically profitable, they could be socially and environmentally devastating, as
seen in the Black Sea region in different cases. Therefore, careful interpretation is
very important in environmental struggles. This very project highlighted cases that
interpreted the public interest in favour of the environment to multiply the positive
effect.
Above all, the right to access to information has a very crucial impact throughout
the whole process, because it means that the public can monitor, evaluate and
participate in decision-making processes when they have information. In this
respect, transparency has a big impact on all systems of the government in a
democratic state.
7.3.1.1 Report
The project report is one of the end products of the project. In the first part it
outlines the project and explains how to read the project maps, and in the second
part it digs into the findings of the mapping to highlight important points. The third
part of the report examines environmental law in general, and makes a suggestion
about Article 56 of the Constitution, which is about the right to environment and
access to information and justice. This part gives a picture of related issues and
makes some recommendations.
During the examination of decisions and the mapping of these decisions, definitions of the concepts that judges use as a basis were hard to agree and hard to
explain. It was also difficult to understand and interpret the maps. Moreover, people
have little knowledge of these concepts. Therefore, the project team decided to add
an annex of concepts in which definitions of the concepts were written by the
project’s experts. They aimed to provide a clearer picture of the concepts which
people might encounter.
7.3.1.2 Leaflet
Even though access to information was one of the main aims of the project, the
project team realized during the project workshops that it is important to inform
people about the access to information as a first step. For this reason, the team
decided to prepare a document in which they explained how to use the right to
access to information. The team also realized that reading and finding the desired
118
E. Türker Alpay
Two prominent concepts that are used as the basis for decisions are public
interest and the right to environment. Public interest is a controversial concept and
different interpretations of the concept lead to different results. As there is no
common definition of public interest (Tezcan/Poyraz 2013), its interpretation in a
case depends on the judge of the case. At this point, economic and social good
mostly conflict with each other. For example, while hydroelectric power plants are
economically profitable, they could be socially and environmentally devastating, as
seen in the Black Sea region in different cases. Therefore, careful interpretation is
very important in environmental struggles. This very project highlighted cases that
interpreted the public interest in favour of the environment to multiply the positive
effect.
Above all, the right to access to information has a very crucial impact throughout
the whole process, because it means that the public can monitor, evaluate and
participate in decision-making processes when they have information. In this
respect, transparency has a big impact on all systems of the government in a
democratic state.
7.3.1.1 Report
The project report is one of the end products of the project. In the first part it
outlines the project and explains how to read the project maps, and in the second
part it digs into the findings of the mapping to highlight important points. The third
part of the report examines environmental law in general, and makes a suggestion
about Article 56 of the Constitution, which is about the right to environment and
access to information and justice. This part gives a picture of related issues and
makes some recommendations.
During the examination of decisions and the mapping of these decisions, definitions of the concepts that judges use as a basis were hard to agree and hard to
explain. It was also difficult to understand and interpret the maps. Moreover, people
have little knowledge of these concepts. Therefore, the project team decided to add
an annex of concepts in which definitions of the concepts were written by the
project’s experts. They aimed to provide a clearer picture of the concepts which
people might encounter.
7.3.1.2 Leaflet
Even though access to information was one of the main aims of the project, the
project team realized during the project workshops that it is important to inform
people about the access to information as a first step. For this reason, the team
decided to prepare a document in which they explained how to use the right to
access to information. The team also realized that reading and finding the desired
118
E. Türker Alpay