Constitutional provisions to protect the environment are an instrument of national environmental law, like Art. 20a of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, introduced in 1994. Art. 20a provides that ‘pursuant to its responsibility for this and future generations, the State shall protect the natural basis of human existence by legislation within the framework of the Constitution, and by the exercise of its executive and judiciary powers.’ This rule establishes the protection of the environment as one of the goals of the State, although is does not accord any rights directly to the citizen.Procedural systems—whether based in courts or agencies, whether addressing civil or criminal processing, and whether framed through constitutional provisions, statutes, rules, or practices—must address the theories, aspirations, and values that underlie decisions enforced by the state. Procedural systems consider the kinds of disputes that may prompt litigation; the means by which lawsuits are started and stopped, as well as what happens in between and who can participate; the identity and characteristics of the participants (parties, lawyers, witnesses, judges, juries, and other third party ‘neutrals’); the powers of decision makers; the structure of courts, and the roles courts play in a particular governmental structure or as trans-national institutions. Inevitably, procedural systems are founded on social and political values about fairness, justice, liberty, and economy.