State and Environment: From the Non-State to the Participatory Approaches

n the case of the relationship between government and environmental obligations there are different views in public law theory. At least three approaches can be mentioned in the context of general task to which principle 50 of constitution refers. The first approach is based on the centrality of the state in protecting the environment and ensuring the right to a healthy environment (State-centric approach). This approach assumes that the market and the private sector are incapable of protecting the environment. So it is only the state that has the primary responsibility for protection of the environment as a general task.
The second approach relates to the absence of the state in protecting the environment (Approach without government). In fact the emergence of this approach is because of the inability of the government to protect the environment. According to this approach the government cannot protect the environment propperly and experience has shown that some governments have become one of the violators of environmental law.
And at last the participation approach is based on the idea of cooperation between the state and non-state actors and the citizens in the area of environmental protection and implementation of the related policies. In this paper, different aspects of this issue in the context of public law are analyzed. The basic assumption of this article is based on the belief that the environmental protection requires the government’s cooperation with citizens.