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Faure, Michael --- "Environmental Liability" [2009] ELECD 296; in Faure, Michael (ed), "Tort Law and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Tort Law and Economics

Editor(s): Faure, Michael

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847206596

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Environmental Liability

Author(s): Faure, Michael

Number of pages: -2

Extract:

10 Environmental liability
Michael Faure


10.1 Introduction
This chapter of the Encyclopedia on tort law and economics will deal
with the hot issue of environmental liability. Economic analysis of law
has long been applied to environmental problems and also to the area of
environmental liability. As such, the application of the general economic
principles of accident law to environmental problems does not pose specific
difficulties. There are, however, several characteristics of environmental
pollution which make it worthwhile to devote a separate chapter to this
area. The problems of choosing between negligence and strict liability may
have specific features in the area of environmental liability; environmental
damage assessment may be even more difficult in this area and causation
issues may play a particular role here as well. Moreover, the foreseeability
requirement will often not be met in the case of environmental pollution,
which raises specific questions when tort law is applied to environmental
pollution. In these cases, one often notices tensions between the deter-
rence objective stressed by economists and notions of distributional justice
advanced by lawyers and policy makers who wish to seek relief for victims
of environmental pollution. Many of the issues concerning environmental
pollution which are dealt with in this chapter therefore closely relate to
issues dealt with in other chapters as well. The general theory (for example,
concerning the choice between negligence and strict liability) will therefore
not be repeated within the scope of this chapter, but some specific features
of environmental pollution will be stressed.
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