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Environmental Liability Law: Environmental Civil Experts’ view
86-112Views:155Environmental liability legislation, both the ELD in Europe and CERCLA in US, is burdened with significant compromises, but even if so, they are too leniently implemented. Moreover, rather scarce data are available on the liability cases and on the status of polluted sites, therefore the system is unable to amend itself. There is no reason to be surprised: expenses of protection or remedy of the polluted sites are enormous, the concerned industries would get into a poor competition position in the market if faced with too stringent liability. In the exceptional cases when their deeds are revealed and enforcement actions start, they still might retreat behind the bastions of limited responsibility of their companies. In such situations public participation is a vital element of any progressive outcomes. In the present study we examine the efforts of J&E, a network of public interest environmental lawyers to contribute to moving out the European environmental liability systems from their stalemate position and enhance their effectiveness.
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Regulatory Proposal of the Ombudsman for Future Generations
10-28Views:235The most important provisions of environmental liability are available, but the effective enforcement still requires the regulation of several legal conditions. The ombudsman for future generations, following a wide professional and social coordination issued a complex regulatory proposal. The proposal is based upon the EU Environmental Liability Directive within the framework of the existing liability scheme, with a broader understanding of liability, and with the most inclusive approach of the polluter pays principle. Among other elements it covers the financial guarantees, the formation of the financial coverage of state intervention, the implementation of environmental liability attached to the real estates, the availability of and access to the environmental information, the more effective enforcement of environmental liability, and also the setting of conditions of implementation within public administration. The main objective is to promote responsible environmental behaviour.
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Scientific Uncertainty and the Enforceability of Environmental Liability
67-85Views:236This study examines the ways in which environmental liability for environmental harm is allocated under Hungarian laws and regulations and in the practice of domestic courts. Specifically, it focuses on how laws handle the uncertain nature of causal links between a given pollution and its possible source, and which actors should bear the costs of remediation. The study posits that the uncertain nature of scientific evidence impacts the way environmental liability can be allocated and enforced, as scientific evidence can never establish requisite causal links with absolute certainty. The article first enumerates and discusses the sources of scientific uncertainty and demonstrates that it inescapably burdens scientific evidence. It then examines how laws and regulations in force handle causal uncertainty and the ways in which liability for environmental harm is distributed among various actors. The study concludes with proposing legislative amendments in order to allocate environmental liability in a more equitable way in cases when the causal processes remain inherently uncertain.
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The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in the Enforcement of Environmental Liability
113-127Views:289Public participation is an essential part of the mechanism of dealing with environmental problems. Both the Aarhus Convention and Union law stipulate that citizens and environmental NGOs should be guaranteed access to justice that includes providing legal standing for environmental NGOs individuals and directly affected by a breach of environmental law. In accordance with the Environmental Liability Directive, persons adversely affected by environmental damage are entitled to ask the competent authorities to take action. However, there are major chellenges to the implementation of environmental legislation, faced by environmental NGOs in obtaining standing to bring legal challenges on environmental issues.
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The Observation, Review, and Possible Modification of the EU Environmental Liability Directive in Hungary
29-41Views:200The main secondary legal source of environmental liability in the European Union is the Directive 2004/35/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage. Even though it was modified several times since then, it still remains the basic norm in the environmental field by establishing the regulatory frames by means of the polluter pays principle and the principle of prevention. The present study makes an overview of recent and potential further legislative steps in Hungary with regards to its implementation.
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Limits of Environmental Liability: Summary of the Guest Editor
189-198Views:207This summary is an attempt to demonstrate that despite all the differences in how limits of environmental liability are perceived by the authors of this special issue due to different approaches to environmental liability, a common framework can nevertheless be drawn encompassing them all. Each article of the special issue elaborates some of the aspects of the concept of environmental liability. Despite the differences in the evaluation and assessment by the authors of the role of stakeholders and of the facts having an impact on the concept of environmental liability, it is shown that all of them are analysing the very same subject. The apparent differences are due to the different contexts in which environmental liability is examined and evaluated. Thus, the summary underlines that there is a need for system thinking related to environmental liability.
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Dark Waters? The Place of Environmental Liability in the Environmental Policy Toolkit (Issues of Regulatory Methodology and Environmental Principles)
42-66Views:334The starting point of the study is that environmental liability is not only a tool of ex-post sanctioning and remediation, but also helps to enforce the principles of prevention and precaution. It examines the rules on liability for environmental damage in a broader context and links the various instruments of environmental policy by presenting their relationship to the environmental policy principles and typifying the policy instruments of environmental protection.
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In Contrast: Responsibility for Environment and Regulation in Finance
128-155Views:277The more environmental policy comes into the focus of fiscal policies of governments, the more prevailing are the interests in it influencing the governance as a whole. In the context of the European Union, the governmental role of the Member States’ increased less for initiating the (often invoked) environmental protection but such an increase is rather an end in itself. The responsibility for environment seems to represent the bright side, while the reality of financial regulations shows the dark side of government priorities.
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Editorial
7-9Views:189The twenty-third issue of our journal aims to examine the environmental liability regulation in Hungary. Already at the start of Pro Futuro, our editorial board set the goal of publishing thematic issues from time to time. In 2020, we finally had the opportunity to do so. This issue is the result of a collaboration with Hungary’s Ombudsman for Future Generations.