INTRODUCTION TO THE SOURCES OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 1 Environmental Law

2 A collection of rules In response to environmental problems Coherent, sophisticated regime Remedial rules; cleaning pollution after the event; ensuring polluter pays / sanctions; compensation Preventive rules; aim to stop pollution before it occurs; eg emission limits; curtailing industrial activities and uses of land; advance grant of licences; environmental assessment/ public enquiry

Environmental Law 3 Sources Common Law Law of Torts Primary function to protect private rights Negligence Nuisance Rule in Rylands v Fletcher

Environmental Law 4 Limits to the Common Law in Environmental Protection Cambridge Water Co Ltd v Eastern Counties Leather plc [1994] 1ALL ER 53 Lord Goff Need for property interest Courts restrictive of extension of liability for environmental harm Development of the law for Parliament

Environmental Law 5 Cambridge Water - Lord Goff: ‘... given that so much well-informed and carefully structured legislation is now being put in place for this purpose, there is less need for the courts to develop a common law principle to achieve the same end, and indeed it may well be undesirable that they should do so.’ Parliament – structured; Courts – ad hoc Parliament – democratic legitimacy Allocating responsibility for environmental harm ‘As a general rule, it is more appropriate for strict liability in respect of operations of high risk to be imposed by Parliament not the courts’

Environmemtal Law 6 Criminal Law; remedial control; punish the polluter Statutory regime; Enforcement Society’s moral condemnation of environmentally harmful activities Adminstrative Law Framework legislation Secretary of State Environment Agency Judicial review

Environmental Law 7 Legislation Statutes: Environmental Protection Act 1990 Parts II (Waste); IIA (Contaminated Land); III (Statutory Nuisance) Water Resources Act 1991 The Environment Act 1995 Climate Change Act 2008 Framework Legislation

Environmental Law 8 Statutes – general broad principles Delegated legislation – rules in order to implement Statutory instruments Contaminated Land (England) Regulations 2006 Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 Government guidelines

Environmental Law 9 European Union Law Substantive EU environmental laws: Water Quality – drinking and bathing water Air Quality Waste Management Noise Chemicals Nature

Environmental Law 10 European Union environmental law Horizontal Instruments Procedural; Methods by which environmental protection achieved Environmental Impact Assessment Access to Environmental Information Eco-Label Ec0-Audit Management System Environmental Liability

Environmental Law 11 International Law Sustainable Development: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development 1987 The Brundtland Report ‘Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ Climate Change; Ozone Layer; Biodiversity; Transboundary Air Pollution

Environmental Law 12 Human Rights European Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 Human Rights Act 1998 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union No Right to a Clean Environment

Environmental Law 13 Increasingly becoming more proactive New Techniques and Instruments Education and Information Economic Instruments Voluntary Agreements Emissions Trading Schemes