Is the administrative approach to liability the most effective way to address environmental damage?

• Main Author: Colmenarez Ortiz, Claudia
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Law and Political Science; Environmental law -GMOs -Liability; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/6914893; http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-6914893

Nowadays, science has been evolving in faster and more effective ways in order to find innovative solutions to reduce the impact that every human activity and new technology have on the environment. This scenario should be the same in the field of environmental law. However, the evolution of environmental laws and policies has been different. Particularly, the harmonization of laws to assess risks of damage to the environment has developed significantly compared to the existing liability systems to address environmental damage. Traditionally, the actions of liability for environmental damage at an international level have been governed by civil liability provisions which have led to unnecessary complexity, overlap of jurisdictions and an unsuccessful restoration of the environment in some cases. This is shown in the efforts of the International Law Commission (ILC) to develop international law to address environmental damage by effective response measures for restoration in addition to compensation. Some other examples followed the same tendency to the administrative approach to liability by means of response measures. The Protocol on Civil Liability and Compensation for Damage Caused by the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents on Transboundary Waters included the concept of response measures following an industrial accident notwithstanding the civil liability nature of the protocol. The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty rephrases a similar procedure to the administrative approach to liability implementing response actions in case of an environmental emergency. However, the first legal instrument addressing environmental damage via an administrative approach to liability is the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (The Nagoya Protocol). This paper will analyze the Nagoya Protocol as an example of administrative approach to liability in case of damage to biodiversity and will examine the challenges to ...