Environmental policy and administrative management

The Philippine Judicial Academy as the arm for the purpose of delivering judicial education to judges and other court personnel has embarked on a series of seminar workshops and discussions on environmental protection for the last few years. This set of activities was undertaken in partnership with NGOs, donor agencies and legal groups with specific interest in protecting the environment. In the course of the trainings and workshops some observations and comments have been gathered, particularly on the matter of effective administration of justice in environment in environment cases. For example, during the roundtable discussion on environmental dispute resolution held on February 18, 2005 participants identified the difficult in the actual implementation and enforcement of environment laws due to lack of legal and technical expertise. Many judges were also viewed as lacking in training on environmental laws. The fact that there is no specialized court to handle environment related disputes burdens litigants further.

Philippines