UrbanLex is a database of legislation, decisions and policy documents relating to the management and development of the urban environment. It is compiled by UN-Habitat, the United Nations’ human settlement programme. Most of the content is in the original language with a digest in English.
This page on the UN-Habitat website provides information on urban law and the work of the Urban Legislation Unit. There is an overview of work of the unit - including UrbanLex, the urban law database - along with news and publications.
The Urban Law Center is based at Fordham University School of Law. It focuses on law relating to cities and metropolitan regions. The website has details of news and events and provides publications, including the Center’s Urban Law Bulletin.
This page describes the work of Environmental Law Programme (ELP) which forms part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) a membership network of government and civil society organisations concerned with nature conservation. There is information on the various initiatives run by the ELP including the World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL), the Environmental Law Centre (ELC) and the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law.
The Waterlex Legal Database brings together information about national and international water law, governance and policy. It is provided by Waterlex, an international NGO. The data is partly crowd-sourced and partly obtained from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and other official bodies. The database is searchable by key word and can be filtered by country, region and/or type of document. For many countries, extracts from legislation are available, with links to the full text on national websites.
The Environment Agency is the public body responsible for the environment in England. Its website includes detailed information on subjects such as flood defence, environmental permits, waste and waste disposal. There are comprehensive maps of environmental data covering England and Wales (this includes topics such as issued flood warnings and air pollution).
Also provided are documents and policy information and a searchable public register of holders of environmental permits.
The Law and Your Environment web page is a plain guide to environmental law compiled by the UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA) and made freely available on their website. The guide provides information on the law dealing with a range of environmental areas including air pollution, climate change, marine environment, fracking, noise, planning and wildlife issues. Each section breaks down to include case studies, contacts, FAQs and links to relevant legislation and other resources.
This section of the UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA) website focuses on issues surrounding Brexit and the future of UK environmental regulation. There is guidance on the impact of European Union membership on environmental law in the UK and a selection of UKELA policy papers on the implications of Brexit for different areas of environmental law. There are also links to articles by environmental law experts dealing with topics such as climate policy, nature conservation in the UK and environmental law in Scotland.
The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) was established in May 1995 and became active in December 1995. It is a semi-autonomous authority and is the principal agency charged with “the responsibility of coordinating, monitoring, regulating and supervising environmental management in the country”. Details are given of the structure and management of the organisation. A wide selection of environmental reports, project reports and “Sensitivity Atlases” covering different regions and resources are available in full text to download/view free of charge.
UNEP was established as a programme of the United Nations General Assembly as a result of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Its headquarters are in Nairobi and there are regional offices and specialised units around the world. This website at the Geneva Executive Centre describes the various conventions and treaties currently in force including the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure (hazardous chemicals), providing technical guidelines and downloadable documents.
