This book focuses on liability for damage to those natural resources that are of interest to the public and are protected by national, European or international law. It provides an overview of the law of the United States and of certain EU Member States on the recovery of damages for injury to natural resources. The international civil liability conventions that cover environmental harm and the recently published European Commission's White Paper on environmental liability are also discussed. The on-going development in various international forums of treaties or protocols dealing with liability for environmental damage are analyzed, as are the principles developed by the UNEP Working Group established in response to the 1990 Gulf War to advise the UNCC on claims for damage to natural resources. The book addresses assessment and valuation issues, the issue of standing in cases of injury to (un)owned natural resources, and the determination of ways to repair, restore and compensate for natural resource injuries and the associated loss of ecological and human services. It also explains why such a difference exists between the US and most European jurisdictions and inter-national liability conventions as to the recovery of damages for injury to natural resources.

This study considers the problems of defining and valuing "environmental damage" from the perspective of international and comparative law. The need for a broad and systematic evaluation of this issue is illustrated by the number of topics presently on the international law-making agenda to which it is relevant, including the UN Compensation Commission's decisions on compensation for environmental losses suffered by Kuwait in the Gulf War, nuclear and oil pollution liability regimes, the development of an environmental liability protocol to the Antarctic Treaty and other agreements on bio-safety and genetically modified organisms. It is thus an important element in contemporary efforts to strengthen legal remedies for environmental harm which does not necessarily come within traditional categories of legally protected personal or property rights.

The main focus of this important book is on civil liability regimes to compensate for ecological/environmental damage, the impact of EC decision-making on the international regime for oil pollution damage, the use of environmental funds in this respect, the economic valuation of damage to the environment from a theoretical perspective and the application of the Contingent Valuation Method in Belgium for ecological damage at sea.

The role of law in responding to global environmental problems and the interplay between different levels of regulation and governance is becoming increasingly relevant in the field of liability and reparation for environmental damage. This book examines the relationship and reciprocal influences between the EU and the international legal order in a multilevel and comparative perspective, in relation to the ongoing efforts to elaborate effective regimes of liability and reparation for environmental damage. It offers a comparative analysis of legal developments in the field of environmental liability within the EU and at the international law level and addresses questions concerning the impact of such interaction on the development, implementation and enforcement of appropriate responses to environmental damage within the respective legal orders and on a global level. Given the book’s focus and the transnational legal dimension of the issues covered, this volume will be of great interest to legal academics and researchers working in the environmental law field from an EU law and international law perspective, as well as more generally to scholars interested in the study of the relationship between EU and international law. Outside academia, the book will also be of great interest to practitioners wishing to get insights into the application of the law of environmental liability in the EU and at the international law level.

Clarifies legal requirements for environmental protection in deep seabed mining and the legal consequences when environmental damage occurs.

This festschrift, dedicated to Judge Bruno Simma, traces the development of international law from regulating bilateral state-to-state relationships towards strengthening the entire international community by protecting human security, the global environment, and human rights. It provides both theoretical and practical insights into these sometimes conflicting goals, their basis in international law, and the role played by international institutions charged with upholding these values and interests. The work thus examines the mechanism by which international law contributes to the realization not only of individual State interests, but the interests of the international community as a whole. From this vantage point, it looks at the various functions that international law fulfills in the international community, from law-making and institution-building towards adjudication and the securing of human rights. Taken together, the contributions to this book paints a detailed, but nevertheless comprehensive picture of the realization of community interest in contemporary international law. As professor and judge, Bruno Simma has contributed to all of these tasks: providing ground-breaking theoretical work, serving in the International Law Commission and in the Committee for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and finally, as a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The three introductory chapters express this unity of life and work.

This book examines liability for environmental harm in Antarctic, deep seabed, and high seas commons areas, highlighting a unique set of legal questions: Who has standing to claim environmental harms in global commons ecosystems? How should questions of causation and liability be addressed where harm arises from a variety of activities by state and non-state actors? What kinds of harm should be compensable in global commons ecosystems, which are remote and characterized by high levels of scientific uncertainty? How can practical concerns such as ensuring adequate funds for compensation be resolved? This book provides the first in-depth examination and evaluation of current rules and possible avenues for future legal developments in this area of increasing importance for states, international organizations, commercial actors, and legal and governance scholars. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.