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FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGES OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 103 were already able to grant certain rights to the fetus in the womb, so that in legal terms we can speak of the present generation’ from the moment of conception, and thus distinguish it from future generations who have not yet been conceived. But for the latter we cannot grant "rights. Specificities of environmental law In general, the role of the norms that make up the legal system should not be underestimated, but neither should it be over-emphasised. Law can effectively take into account short-term, individual interests and can react and deal with problems that arise during economic activity relatively quickly, even if they do lead to serious crises from time to time. However, it has much more difficulty in dealing with more complex social, cultural and other challenges. Of course, other norms (moral norms, religious precepts, rules of etiquette, fashion, etc.) also influence the functioning of a society, but legal norms form a hierarchical system. Within this system, environmental law emerged as a specific field of regulation in the second half of the 1960s and is still popularly referred to as ‘a cross-cutting branch of law’ today.° This specific area of law is therefore relatively young and has been actively developing in recent years, not only in terms of the number of laws (both national and international) but also in terms of doctrine. The situation is particularly difficult in the field of environmental law, where, in addition to the problems which characterize legal regulation in general (the constant increase in the number of laws, the complexity and constant changes in the rules, the ‘casuistic nature of the legal system, the bureaucratic nature of enforcement, the judiciary’s heavy workload, etc.), there are a number of specific problems which make the development of effective legislation almost impossible: a) the boundaries of environmental law are difficult to draw (actually, the entire legal system should be permeated by environmental considerations and requirements); b) a comprehensive and integrated approach (‘holistic approach’) is needed, as opposed to traditional sectoral regulation; c) by its very nature, legislation is often only able to respond to changing circumstances ex post facto, while risks are increasing; d) human activity affects all environmental elements, so that environmental impacts do not occur in isolation but rather are ‘cumulative’, and pollution can ‘migrate’ from one environmental element to another; e) the complexity of the problems makes it difficult to predict the medium and long-term environmental impacts of human activities; f) these impacts can be delayed in space and time, making it difficult to prove liability; g) tackling most of the challenges (e.g., building waste management systems and improving air and water quality) properly involves long-term and costly decisions, which require political will and adequate capacity (in particular, substantial capital for investment); ° Initially, it was called the law of nature protection’ and later the law of environmental protection, but the subject of regulation has since been significantly narrowed down.
