ABSTRACT

On 15 October 2010, the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Supplementary Protocol) was adopted, an important event as it is one, if not the only, international treaty that deals with liability for environmental damage caused by living modified organisms (LMOs). The adoption of the Supplementary Protocol is, however, not only a significant event because of the subject it deals with, but also because of the approach that has been taken by the negotiating Parties with regard to liability. Unlike the majority of international environmental liability treaties, including the International Oil Pollution Conventions, 1 which have served as a model for many environmental liability treaties, 2 such as the 1999 Basel Liability Protocol, 3 the 1996 HNS Convention, 4 and the 2001 Bunker Oil Pollution Convention, 5 the Supplementary Protocol adopts an ‘administrative approach’ to liability rather than the civil liability approach taken by those international treaties.