The Polluter Pays Principle
September (2013)
-
Wednesday 4th of
This meeting of the QUB Environmental Law Reading Group – since
relaunched as the Environmental Law and Policy Reading Group – took
place at QUB’s atmospheric Lanyon Building, at Wednesday
lunchtime. The Reading Group is an open group, and as such it was
attended by a range of people with environmental interests, including
those from both QUB and from farther afield. Those present were
delighted to welcome Dr Dieter Pesendorfer into this warm, relatively
informal environment, who had been invited to give a short ten
minute introductory talk on the polluter pays principle, one of Dr
Pesendorfer’s personal areas of scholarly interest.
The group then engaged in a lively discussion of the session’s prearranged text, and exchanged views and ideas on the polluter pays
principle more generally. The afternoon’s agreed text was:
Bleeker, Arne 'Does the Polluter Pay? The Polluter-Pays
Principle in the Case Law of the European Court of Justice' 18
European Energy and Environmental Law Review 2009: 289306.
Bleeker’s paper is especially noteworthy due to the manner in which
it engages the polluter pays in an expressly legal context, paying
detailed attention to the treatment of the principle within the sphere
of European Union law, and in particular within the jurisprudence of
the European Court of Justice.
The session was very successful, and after the ‘official’ hour was up
most of those present sat on for some time in order to continue the
exchange of ideas over coffee in good company.
Thomas Muinzer