A new international law, described by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as ‘the most ambitious venture in environmental democracy undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations’, will enter into force tomorrow, 30 October 2001...In practical terms, this means, for instance, that local residents must be given a say in new road schemes or in the siting of household-waste incinerators. Members of the public also have a right to know what state their environment is in and, in some circumstances, to sue governments or polluters that attempt to cover up environmental disasters.