For the main executive content of the research project, the Research Team has conducted the following major parts: (1) Doing research on the procedural requirements of environmental permit, including the public participation and information disclosure, in different countries such as United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan and studying the relationship between the regulation of environmental impact assessment and other agencies’ regulations for environmental protection. (2) Doing research on the current legal system of environmental permit in Taiwan, focusing on the public participation and information disclosure, and proposing the practicable and enforceable strategy, including the forgoing legal system in the processes of environmental impact assessment. (3)Planning the methods for the further study and for the competent agency, not the Environmental Protection Agency, to conduct the processes, realizing the procedural requirements such as public participation and information disclosure, of environmental impact assessment and environmental permit.
As the response to the main executive content, the Research Team presents some suggestions and recommendations as the followings: First, after reviewing the current practice of the decision-making processes of environmental permit in Taiwan, the experience of other countries, including how to disclose information for the public and how to achieve the participatory justice upon the decision-making, could be good lessons for us to learn. For example, in U.S., at the very beginning of each process of the decision-making, including the processes of environmental impact assessment and environmental permit, the competent agency would focus on cooperation and coordination with other relevant agencies, tribes, or interested groups. In addition, for the community benefit system in U.K. emphasizing the public participation and the principle of pooling of interest could be another good model for us to learn. Furthermore, in order to meeting the requirements of due process under the constitutional law, the Research Team proposes different models, varying intensities, for different types of decision-making processes: the basic model, the advanced model, and the further deliberative model. Also, we recommend the establishment of the legal system of the mediation for seeking dispute resolution into the processes of environmental impact assessment and environmental permit. Finally, from the practical experience of decision-making under scientific uncertainty in U.S., the Research team strongly suggests that the Environmental Protection Agency shall provide the guidance as the importance reference for the decision-making of environmental policy and environmental permit for the public participation and information disclosure.
