Locus Standi and distrust of the public administration. A comparison of three models Luca De Lucia * Full professor of Italian and European Administrative Law at the University of Salerno (Italy) Abstract This paper examines the connection that exists in three specifc legal orders between the regulation of locus standi in the public interest in administra- tive litigations, and the confdence that the society and the institutions place in the role and authoritativeness of the public administration. To this end, after briefy ad- dressing the concept of ‘Counter-Democracy’, focus is turned frst to the current debate regarding locus standi in the public interests in Germany and then to the situation in Italy. This analysis aims, on the one hand, to aid understanding of the reasons underlying the differences that can be found between these two legal systems and, on the other hand, to explain the tensions that are present in the third model, that of the European Union, which affect locus standi for environmental matters in relation to the Aahrus Convention. 1. Subject of the research The issue of the right to appeal (locus standi) against acts of the public administration is of central importance in all European countries, 1 in DOI 10.7590/187479817X15095380840339 1874-7981 2017 Review of European Administrative Law * I would like to thank Jesús Fuentetaja Pastor, Giuseppe Manfredi, Antonella Meniconi for having read and commented on the previous version of this paper. Many thanks go also to the Editors and the reviewer of REALaw for their useful suggestions. Any eventual errors, gaps or imprecisions are of course solely and exclusively my own. Translation from the Italian by Philippa Wheadon. For an extensive comparative analysis, see M. Eliantonio & C.W. Backes & C.H. van Rhee & T.N.B.M. Spronken & A. Berlee (Eds.), Standing up for your right(s) in Europe: A Comparative 1 study on Legal Standing (Locus Standi) before the EU and Member States’ Courts (Brussels: 2012), especially Chapter 4, that contains very interesting information on this issue. The study – commissioned by the EU Parliament – is also available on: www.europarl.europa.eu/Reg- Data/etudes/etudes/join/2012/462478/IPOL-JURI_ET(2012)462478_EN.pdf (consulted on the 21st May 2015). REVIEW OF EUROPEAN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW; VOL. 10, NR. 2, 7-26, PARIS LEGAL PUBLISHERS © 2017 7 Review of European Administrative Law 2017-2