ABSTRACT
One of the advertisements on behalf of Friends of the Earth which has appeared in the UK press asserts that ‘clean air is a basic human right’. Clean air was cited first in the list of ‘legally enforceable environmental rights’ which the UK Labour Party’s Policy Commission on the Environment committed a future Labour administration to recognise; and disputes over air pollution would fall within the jurisdiction of an ‘Environment Division’ of the High Court, the creation of which formed another commitment in this policy document.1 In this chapter I consider the extent to which rights-based arguments have featured in British and US approaches to the control of air pollution. These approaches are many and various, with few being entirely devoid of a rights dimension. They range from action in nuisance as a means by which a householder can secure remedies against smoke and fumes originating from neighbouring land, to international treaties on global pollution. Given the exigencies of atmospheric dispersion, the political objective of ‘clean air’ requires intervention at the local, regional and supranational levels, with varying opportunities for involvement by individuals and citizens’ groups.
