The Court is asked to review the conformity of paragraph V of Article 224-1 of the Environmental Code with the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Article L.224-1 of the Environmental Code appears within Title II, “Air and atmosphere”, of the Code. According to this article “In order to meet the objectives of the present Title, a Conseil d’Etat decree shall specify the conditions under which certain new constructions must contain a minimum quantity of wood”.

The claimants argued that this article breached the principle of public access to information and public participation to decisions having a impact on the environment (article 7 of the Environmental Charter) and the principle of freedom of enterprise (Article 4 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen).

The legislator provided technical rules to be adopted for construction in order to promote an increase in the production of wood, which is expected to achieve an improvement in the fight against atmospheric pollution. The requirement of such technical rules is in itself likely to have only an indirect impact on the environment. Therefore the legislator was not required to subject the decision to set these rules to the principle of public participation.

The claimant argued that by authorising the regulatory authorities to set the conditions under which certain new constructions must include a minimum quantity of wood, without limitation in particular regarding the setting of the threshold for the minimum portion of wood to be incorporated, the legislator violated the principle of freedom of enterprise. The Court ruled that this provision violated the principle of freedom of enterprise in a manner, which was not justified by a reason of general interest directly linked to be objective pursued.
Consequently, the Court decided that paragraph V article L. 224-1 of the Environmental Code is unconstitutional.