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Book Title: Research Handbook on International Environmental Law
Editor(s): Fitzmaurice, Malgosia; Ong, M. David; Merkouris, Panos
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201249
Section: Chapter 16
Section Title: International Liability for Damage to the Environment
Author(s): de La Fayette, Louise Angélique
Number of pages: 41
Extract:
16 International liability for damage to the environment
Louise Angélique de La Fayette
This chapter deals with the question of international civil liability for damage to and through
the environment. Over the past 50 or so years, as the international community has become
increasingly concerned about protection of and damage to the environment, it has adopted a
substantial number of international instruments providing for liability and compensation for
damage caused by hazardous activities. While in earlier times, the focus was on state liabil-
ity, in the 1960s it shifted to civil liability, as states refused to accept liability for trans-
boundary harm and negotiated a number of global and regional agreements placing liability
on the `operator', or the person or entity in control of the hazardous activity. At the same time,
the type of damage covered shifted from an exclusive interest in damage to persons and prop-
erty to damage to the environment, especially the natural environment. Most recently, there
has been an enhanced interest in emergency response, especially response by the person or
entity responsible, to ensure that immediate action is taken to contain, mitigate or prevent any
damage.
These features of an increasing number of liability instruments have affected the work of
the International Law Commission on its topic `International Liability'. The chapter will
begin with a brief outline of the ILC draft articles, and then proceed through an examination
of the concept of liability, before briefly indicating the main features of the liability instru-
ments adopted ...
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ELECD/2010/604.html