Soil protection and land property law in France: On the way to a functional approach to soil?

Abstract

Background: In France, soil is the last physical environment not to have any legal protection of their own considering its ecological functions. They are rather considered as land, and they are managed by Urban Law. The question answered is whether this urbanistic legal seizure is efficient to protect soil as a biological environment or if other public policies and/or legal tools are needed to address the issues of soil environmental management. Results: It appears that Urban Law could be a good legal tool to protect soils environmental functions through ancient and classic urban policies as urban planning or the new disruptive ‘Zero Net Artificialization’. However, such laws are clearly insufficient to address the full scope of the threats caused by humans’ activities on this very fragile environment. Conclusions: New legal tools are to be developed in France, and at the European Union level, to ensure a real and effective protection of soil as ecosystems: creation of a new title entitled ‘Land and Soils within the Second Book ‘Physical Environments’ of the French Environmental Code, extension of environmental crimes to soil (pollution, ecocide, etc.), better bonding between the ‘Zero Net Artificialization’ urban policy and biodiversity conservation, etc.

Keywords

• Artificialization
• Ecological services
• Environmental law
• Property
• Urban law
• Urban planning