حسین رضازاده

Procedural environmental law , also known as environmental democracy consists of three Pillars , which include the right of access to environmental information , the right of participation in environmental decision-making procedures and the right of access to justice. Environmental democracy is granted to citizens for their empowerment in order to protect their health against environmental damage and to ensure the environment. The aim of this study is to investigate the above rights in the international documents, jurisprudence and domestic legal systems of some leading states and then analyse the Iranian legal system through descriptive-analytical method. We found that Iranian legal system still suffers from some gaps despite the positive efforts to achieve environmental democracy in recent years. The most important issues are the lack of specific rules on people’s access to environmental information, a favorable system for citizen participation in environmental decisions , and a dedicated environmental court.

Background and Theoretical Foundations: The environment problems have pervasive and lasting consequences for this generation and the next generation. The effects of environmental change on human life will soon appear. One of the most important environmental crises that Iran and the four littoral Caspian Sea countries bordering are facing is the environmental crisis of this sea. The Caspian Sea, the world's largest salt lake, has a sensitive ecosystem. Although salt lakes are very important for the environment, the most important example that has been recorded of the successful management of salt lakes is the case of the Great Lakes between the United States and Canada. Their solution can be used to protect the environment of these lakes in the Caspian Sea and its border countries.Method: In this research, by using the descriptive-analytical method, it has been tried to study the ecosystem of the Caspian Sea and find the best solution for it as a salt lake.Findings: As a matter of fact, although the Caspian Sea has a very rich resource but it has a very sensitive ecosystem and riparian states put it under pressure by over-exploitation of its resource. It caused several problems, such as degradation of water level, pollution of water, and the demise of caviar fish.Conclusion: It is extremely important to accurately attribute the causes of such change to understand how best to manage this body of water. In my opinion, Iran must pay more attention to its water in the north unless we face fine dust and drying of wetlands as we have seen in the south that put in danger human security in different dimensions.  It is undeniable that principles and obligations of international law such as paying polluters, common and differentiated responsibility, and non-harmful use of land… can’t solve the problems all alone. It is true about politics, but together, we can hope for sustainable management of the Caspian Sea. So the only way is the combination of international law and political will and using other states' experiences. So the proposal of this paper is building an institution with real decision-making. The design of the new institution is a step forward. For example, an institution can evaluate any problems with the Caspian Sea or rise by any coastline states and provide a solution, establishing a formal arrangement with real decision-making authority and not leaving most decisions up to individual states without effective collective control. However, in practice, states hardly show interest in institutions with mandatory power. So, instead, the Caspian Sea shoreline’s states can establish a non-mandatory committee that we hope to execute its decision with political will as we have seen in the Great Lakes. Because above all of this, politics will stand. So political and international law together could solve this problem.