Protecting the environment from pollution and other risks is now a central concern for citizens and governments. In recent years criminal law has replaced civil and administrative law at the forefront of environmental protection, because of its deterrent effect. This Convention criminalises pollution that causes or may cause serious damage or injuries. As many pollution incidents cross national borders, the Convention also aims at facilitating their investigation and prosecution at the international level. The Convention supplements the Convention on Civil Liability for Damage Resulting from Activities Dangerous to the Environment (Eruopean treaty series 150, 1993, ISBN 9287123209)

There is a growing interest at different decision-making levels (EU, international and national) in using liability as an element in solving the legal problems of environmental harm. The interest is founded on the necessity to take into account of complex inter-dependencies and interrelationships between the environmental media at global, regional and national levels. In an effort to implement the aims of sustainable development, new views of the traditional liability instrument have to be applied. The book focuses on the Environmental Liability Directive 2004/35/EC (the so-called “ELD”) on the prevention and remedying of environmental damage, and evaluates as to whether the ELD has achieved its goals and maintained its ambitions in terms of environmental protection, and what the optimal level of harmonization in terms of environmental protection is. In order to address the question of research of this book, an interdisciplinary framework of analysis and methodology combining political science and law are developed. Since environmental damage is a multidimensional and multidisciplinary problem, par excellence, a multidisciplinary approach is required. Consequently, the use of a multidisciplinary method, combining together in a systematic and rigorous fashion, law, political science, technical elements of economy, insurance law and natural science, is, in the research design of this study, necessary, in a view of tackling the topic in a scientific problem solving-oriented approach. The book draws the overall conclusions by suggesting proposals for amendments and recommendations to be utilized for possible redrafting of the ELD’s provisions for the time when the ELD will be object of a procedure of revision. This book will be of interest to practitioners in EU law and EU Environmental law, international environmental law, legal experts on the law of environmental liability, specialists within international organizations but also by political scientists, economists, insurance law specialists, and natural scientists.

On-going deterioration of the state of the environment and the continuous risk of an environmental disaster has forced society to reconsider its environmental and developmental objectives. For economic and environmental reasons, the costs of prevention and reparation of environmental harm should be channelled to the polluter. However, such channelling may run counter to legal principles. This work scrutinizes this field of tension between economic and legal principles at state level. It provides a unique analysis of traditional thinking on state liability for transboundary harm and the theories which have challenged it since the proliferation of hazardous activities in the 1960s. The author favours a return to traditional thinking, but has an eye for the theories that challenged it with the aim of safeguarding the compensation of victims of transboundary harm.

From its starting point within international law, throughout its progression from regional to national law, "The Law of Environmental Damage" combines the disciplines of environmental law, liability law and insurance in its analysis of the development of reparative environmental law. In the model adopted, three generations of reparative schemes are identified, based on civil liability or administrative liability or self-taken measures from the area of insurance. The analysis applied is based on factors of standard and designation of liability, as well as the definition and assessment of environmental damage. Issues such as environmental lender liability and damage to public natural resources are highlighted. The results of the study are evaluated within the framework of a theory of environmental efficiency; among other factors, the reparative effect of liability rules is discussed.