Environmental Law
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COMMON LAW
CIVIL LIABILITY
LAW OF TORTS
Environmental Law
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Common Law
 Control environmental damage
 Primary function to protect private rights
 Civil action
 Individual has suffered harm/damage - against
 Individual / institution which has caused harm
 Reactive
 Compensatory - damages
 Burden of proof
Environmental Law
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Negligence
Advantages
 Claimant does not need to have an interest in land
 Damages compensate personal injuries
Disadvantages
 Injunctions are not available; neither are
 Pure economic loss & exemplary damages
 Necessary to prove fault
Environmental Law
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Negligence
 Definition
The omission to do something which a reasonable
man, guided upon those considerations which
ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs,
would do, or doing something which a prudent and
reasonable man would not do.
Blythe v Birmingham Waterworks (1856)
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In order to establish negligence, claimant must prove:
 Defendant owes claimant a duty of care;
 Defendant breaches that duty (failure to act
reasonably)
 Breach causes damage to claimant
 Duty of care in negligence established in
 Donoghue v Stevenson (1932) Must take reasonable
care to avoid acts or omissions which you can foresee
would be likely to injure your neighbour
 Test of causation
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Negligence in environmental law is difficult to prove
 Diffuse sources of pollution
 Foreseeability of the damage
Cambridge Water Co Ltd v Eastern Counties Leather 1994
 Foreseeability of the relevant type of harm / damage
In that case supervisor could not reasonably have
foreseen damage ie contamination of groundwaters
 Proximate relationship between parties
 Just and reasonable to impose duty
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Negligence
 Damage must be proved
 Possible to claim damages for physical damage to
person or property and for loss consequential to
damage but not for pure economic loss
Nuisance: Private
Statutory = ss79-82 Environmental Protection Act
1990
Private = reconciling competing interests of
landowners
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Private Nuisance
 Conduct must constitute an unreasonable
interference with interest in beneficial use of land
 Defined in Read v Lyons (1947) as:
 ‘Unlawful interference with a person’s use or
enjoyment of land or some right over, or in
connection with it’
 Reasonableness – Saunders v Grosvenor Mansions
and D’Allesandri (1990)
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Private Nuisance: Acting reasonably?
 Court balances competing interests and takes a/c of:
 Locality;
 Duration;
 Sensitivity of plaintiff;
 Intention of defendant;
 Whole community
Forseeability of type of harm/damage
(CambridgeWater)
Interest in land affected