Various policies and institutional efforts are being made for mature democracy and more sustainable administration of our society. In this respect, the importance of civic participation, considered essential in environmental impact assessment, has been consistently emphasized in the relevant theories and practices. Although various methods and forms of public participation are taking place in Korea, criticism is widely understood that collecting citizens’ opinions in the decisionmaking process has become ineffective and formal. Starting from these issues, this paper seeks to learn lessons from the foreign cases in the international context. Extensive literature review was conducted to examine the meaning and objectives of public participation in EIA and the tactical principles. Based on this, the participatory systems and procedures in the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, and Canada were critically reviewed, and the implications were derived through specific cases. The results are, first, the provision of specific public participation guidelines, second, the securing of transparency in the decision-making process, third, the expansion of procedural participation levels, and lastly, the guarantee of participation opportunities. This paperis meaningful as a basic study to enrich discussions on public participation in the domestic EIA hoping to help research through more diverse empirical cases in the future.