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Environmental Law

This informative guide explores the concepts of environmental liability within common law, focusing on negligence and private nuisance. Learn about the legal principles, advantages, and disadvantages of pursuing civil actions in cases of environmental damage. Discover the requirements for proving negligence, duties of care, causation, and the challenges involved. Gain insights into private nuisance laws, balancing competing interests, and determining reasonableness in interference cases. Be informed about claiming damages for physical harm and consequential losses in environmental disputes.

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Environmental Law

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  1. Environmental Law Common Law Civil Liability Law of Torts

  2. Environmental Law 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

  3. Environmental Law 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

  4. Environmental Law 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)

  5. Environmental Law 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

  6. Environmental Law 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

  7. Environmental Law 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

  8. Environmental Law 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)

  9. Environmental law 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

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