Policies as Mandatory Relevant Considerations in Environmental Impact Assessments - A Swiss Law Perspective on the Western Australian Regime

This article makes a comparative legal analysis of the legal effect of non-statutory policies in environmental impact assessment process. It explores how a Swiss Court would have analysed this issue as determined by the Western Australian Court of Appeal decision in Jacob v Save Beeliar Wetlands (Inc) (2016). It asks whether that analysis would have led to a different out-come. Further, the article compares the function of mandatory relevant considerations in the Western Australian and the Swiss environmental impact assessment regimes, analysing whether and how the Swiss approach could help to improve the Western Australian regime.