Strict Liability and the Environment

As you've seen, the principle of strict liability can be used when an individual or a company causes environmental damage by doing such things as storing toxic substances, which then escape onto neighbouring properties. Again, however, as in all attempts to tackle environmental problems with tort law, the application of the principle is limited and direct harm to the plaintiff must be proven. What's more, the defendant may be allowed to use the defense of independent due diligence, that he or she took reasonable precautions to prevent the damage but that an independent Act of God caused the harm regardless.

Summary

This wraps up your overview of traditional common law methods of dealing with situations where one or more parties are harmed by environmental pollution, caused by another party. As you've seen, there are advantages to using these common law methods in some cases but with today's potential for extraordinary damage caused by such things as; major oil spills, wholesale dumping of toxic waste, and meltdowns of nuclear reactors, the approaches and the remedies developed by the common law simply aren't adequate. What's needed are such things as strictly enforced government regulations, stiff penalties, and mandatory review processes. These are the things you'll be looking at shortly.

Section 1: Conclusion

In Section 1, you have been introduced to the area of legal studies known as environmental law.

Historically, the common law has traditionally dealt with environmental concerns. Also, historically, the common law approach has worked adequately and still does the job in some situations. But the size of the problem and the global nature of environmental concerns today means that stronger weapons are needed to do battle. It is measures of this sort that you'll be looking at in the next section.

Check your knowledge by completing the Self-Assessment Something to Think About 02 on the next page.