Principles of environmental responsibility

The various forms of environmental damage, and the resulting harm to man and his environment, have led legal experts to look beyond the traditional rules of liability to find a specific form of environmental liability. Although there is as yet no specific system of liability for ecological damage, the evolution of national and international texts, as well as case law, is gradually giving ecological damage a real specificity.

Identifying environmental liability is made difficult by the very characteristics of ecological damage. Generally linked to the idea of economic and technical progress, ecological damage often has irreversible consequences. What's more, the cumulative and synergistic effects of pollution are based on an accumulation and aggregation of damage, the source of which is not always easy to identify. What's more, the effects of ecological damage are often felt far beyond local or national borders.

In addition to these general considerations, ecological damage is collective in its causes (multiple perpetrators, industrial development, urban concentration) and effects (social costs); diffuse in its manifestation (air, radioactivity, water pollution). Establishing a causal link is therefore often difficult.

If, by its very nature, environmental damage is difficult to repair, the "ecological offender" will nonetheless have to be punished. The classic principles of liability apply in this case. So, after describing the main principles of administrative, civil and criminal liability, we will describe the particularities and respective applications of each of these bases.