Environmental Law
1
INTRODUCTION TO THE SOURCES OF
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
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