Standing in Australia
In New South Wales, Australia, open standing provisions have been extended to all environmental and planning statutes. In other words, an individual or organisation need not prove a personal injury or problem in order to pursue an environmental problem or violation of environmental law in court. In addition, “any person” with the leave of the court, may bring proceedings to restrain a breach of any statute, if the breach is likely to cause harm to the environment. Similar open standing provisions have been adopted by other Australian states like Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, and South Australia.
Standing in Kenya
The traditional common-law provision limiting standing to people with a personal injury or problem has been upheld in a number of court decisions in Kenya, making redress for environmental damage difficult. In Wangari Maathai v. Kenya Times Media Trust, the plaintiff, the Coordinator of a local environmental NGO, sought a temporary injunction to restrain the defendant from constructing a proposed complex inside a recreational park in the center of Nairobi. The defendant raised the objection that the plaintiff lacked standing to bring the suit and the court agreed, noting that the applicant would not be affected by the construction more than any other resident of Nairobi.
This was again upheld in Wangari Maathai v. Nairobi City Council in which the plaintiff sued for a declaration that the subdivision, sale, and transfer of lands belonging to the local authority was unlawful. The court held that the applicant had no particular interest in the matter. In Lawrence Nginyo Kariuki v. County Council of Kiambu, this strict application of the rule governing standing was also applied in rejecting the plaintiff’s application.
However, the passage of the National Environmental Management and Coordination Act 2000 has relaxed this requirement of standing. The Act provides that a person shall have capacity to bring action notwithstanding that such person cannot show that the defendant’s act or omission has caused or is likely to cause him any personal loss or injury. It also provides for a right of every person to clean and healthy environment and the corresponding duty to safeguard and enhance it.