Plus ça change, plus c’est la mème chose? – An examination of planning provisions of the recently enacted Environment and Development Planning Act 2010

Abstract

This paper compares and contrasts the Development Planning Act, 1992 and its successor, the Environment and Development Planning Act, 2010 with a view to ascertain whether there has been a drastic change in the latter enactment when compared to the former. Although some changes have been encountered in this exercise, it can safely be stated that the new law has built upon the old law. The changes are more by way of addition of new provisions not hitherto dealt with in the old law. This means that there has not been a severance of the umbilical cord between the new law and the old law: on the contrary one can make a case for continuity and updating of the law in the realm of development planning to cater for those unregulated circumstances which have emerged since the workings of the old law way back to 1992.