ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the major systems of environmental liability in the United States—the toxic tort system and Superfund. The common law tort system remains, with the exception of job-related injuries, a principal means of compensating victims of environmental pollution. The chapter focuses on the risks of non-occupational exposure to environmental contaminants. In approaching the comparative institutional analysis of compensatory systems for environmental risks, it is useful to consider first those cases in which science can confidently link a disease to an environmental agent and cases of high exposure to an environmental risk. One area of environmental law in which the limitations of the tort system have been recognized is the statutory regime for the clean-up of dangerous hazardous waste sites. The focus of traditional law and economic analysis upon the workings of legal institutions often misses the larger and more important questions of institutional choice.
