ENVIRONMENTAL FEDERALISM IN INDIA AND AUSTRALIA

This article aims to analyze the environmental federalism in Australia and India with its settings and features, resulting from population and cultural data and also the historical processes of creation of each federal state. As a result it was observed that the greater or lesser centralization is the result of a number of factors that goes from the state formation process to the internal stresses generated by the political, economic and social dynamic of each country. In India, there is a trend of centralization of environmental competence, either by legislative means, by judicial interpretation or through the creation of federal agencies with responsibilities about the environment. In Australia, the Constitution does not provide federal environmental powers, which, unlike the Indian constitutional rule, would be an assignment of the States. However, the judicial activism in the environment theme is a common thread to the two countries analyzed.