The introductory chapter sets out how the right of access to environmental information was developed at the international level and its relevance to current environmental decision-making processes and environmental regulation. This chapter also introduces legal transplant theory and the Aarhus Convention, which provide the theoretical and legal framework, respectively, that acts as the text’s anchoring point. The chapter also sets out the three legal jurisdictions where the legislature’s efforts to guarantee the right will be analysed, providing the scope of the text.

Chapter 7 explores the ramifications of the preceding analysis through the theoretical lens of legal transplant theory. It identifies what substantive and procedural elements are key to achieving the right’s environmental and participative aims and whether the selected jurisdictions’ environmental information regimes contain these elements. The chapter then considers why certain transplants are more likely to be successfully implemented than others, building on the distinction between the core substantive elements and the core procedural elements. This analysis will also consider the role of the Aarhus Convention in promoting or inhibiting legal transplants in light of its impact on the procedures of the selected jurisdictions’ environmental information regime. Finally, the chapter reflects on how the right of access to environmental information is likely to develop into the future, exploring the alternative conceptualisations of the right and considering whether a full convergence of the selected jurisdictions’ environmental information regimes is likely or desirable.