Some highlights on the concept of environmental justice and its use

The article provides a review of the literature on environmental justice, aimed at showing the multifaceted character of the concept and how it has been used since the mid-80s, with special reference to its shift across the Atlantic and over time. It should help to clarify the concept of environmental justice. Several authors have pointed out that the concept has been understood in different ways and it is necessary to have a clear definition of its meaning. I discuss the origins of the term environmental justice in the United States, analyze its use in the specialized literature, and examine how its meaning has changed in Europe, in other countries and through time. I then address the “distributional problem” and draw a brief conclusion.