ABSTRACT
The ability of affected publics to hold to account those responsible for cross-border environmental harm rests not only, as set out in previous chapters, on having their interests incorporated into international rule-making such that ecological risks are prevented or minimized; it also turns on effective rules of liability and compensation – that is to say, the legal capacity of injured parties to seek redress in cases where environmental damage has actually occurred. Responsibility for damage, in other words, refers to the fact that actors are both answerable and liable for their actions. Yet while the last thirty years has seen the negotiation and implementation of numerous international environmental agreements, most of these treaties lack detailed provisions stipulating the responsibility of state and non-state actors for environmental damage. In terms of existing international law, the central deficiency relates to the means of financial accountability for environmental harm across national boundaries and to the global commons. Principle 13 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development registered this deficiency, calling on states to cooperate in developing liability and compensation rules for environmental damage caused by activities both within and beyond their areas of territorial jurisdiction or control (United Nations, 1993: p10).
