Environmental justice is part of social justice. It is based on "the principle that all people have the right to be protected from environmental pollution and to live and enjoy a clean and healthy environment". Environmental justice means the equal protection and meaningful engagement of all people in the development, enactment, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and rules, and the equitable distribution of environmental benefits (State of Massachusetts, 2002). "Environmental justice" is achieved through the protection of nature and the environment, social a phenomenon that has different aspects, eg environmental protection law. One of the basic rights protected by environmental protection law is the "right to a healthy environment" which contains numerous "ecological rights". Among them are the right to life, the right to health, the right to respect for family life and the home, the right to peaceful enjoyment of property, etc. The right to a healthy environment enables, for example, the realization of the right to health, an often neglected human right. It should be central to most environmental justice campaigns: "Socio-economic inequality, pollution, poverty and social exclusion based on profession, age, class and region from which one comes - all this causes an unfair social and spatial distribution of health and health risks. The best way to correct health and other injustices is to give each individual a "fair share" in a "healthy environment" - without fair access to ecological resources and systems important for sustaining life, individuals cannot live with dignity, i.e. satisfy the fundamental rights they have as human beings (J Blewitt, Understanding Sustainable Development, pp. 141-178). The right to a healthy environment therefore has a content that changes over time depending on numerous factors, but in the world there is a positive tendency to adopt laws that protect nature, as well as their enforcement through court rulings. The constitutional right to a healthy environment is a way to achieve environmental justice, but also broader social justice. In addition to the positive impact on the protection of nature and the environment, environmental justice and environmental rights have a positive impact on other fundamental human rights (Ofak, L., The right to a healthy environment and environmental democracy, pp. 195-203).

After completing the course, the student will be able to: 1. Explain environmental protection policies in the EU as highly harmonized sectoral policies of the EU and an integral part of all sectoral policies of the EU; 2. Explain the key principles on which environmental protection policy in the EU is based (sustainable development, integration, prevention, subsidiarity, delays); 3. Identify and explain the impact of environmental protection policy in the EU on the reduction of air, soil and water pollution as environmental goals, but also the contribution of this policy to multiple socio-economic benefits; 4. Identify and explain the objectives of environmental protection action programs in the EU; 5. Recognize and describe the historical, strategic, legislative and institutional framework of environmental protection in the Republic of Croatia and the connection between environmental protection in the Republic of Croatia and environmental protection in the EU; 6. Valorize and interpret the minimum standards of a healthy environment (for an aspect of your own choosing), with a special emphasis on the quality of life.,