ABSTRACT
Protection of what is today called the environment is long rooted in common law and practice, relating to nuisance and tort. The protection grew in the 19th century in public law, as a reaction to the environmentally disastrous consequences of the first industrial revolution. These early and prescient concerns have been given greater urgency and moment by the growing world awareness since the Second World War of man’s impact on the natural resources and environment of planet Earth, and the need to take appropriate measures for their protection: of forests, which can be seen as part of the traditional concern of planning, to the pollution of the ozone layer and the seas, which cannot (Ward & Dubois 1972).
