Environmental Law

Environmental Law 1 COMMON LAW CIVIL LIABILITY LAW OF TORTS

Environmental Law 2

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 3

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 4

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)

Environmental Law 5

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

Environmental Law 6

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

Environmental Law 7

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

Environmental Law 8

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)

Environmental law 9

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