Cuvelier, Claire

General introduction - 2025.


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Legal oversight of environmental public policies reveals the potential of law as a tool for analyzing, regulating, and sanctioning public action. Distinct from evaluation, the legal approach is characterized by its normative capacity, holding governments accountable and imposing binding obligations. However, this dynamic remains incomplete. Neither parliaments nor citizens currently possess sufficiently effective tools to exercise legally binding oversight. As a result, the judiciary emerges as the principal actor in a form of oversight still under construction, whose effectiveness largely depends on fluctuating institutional commitments.