ABSTRACT
The law of negligence had become a major factor in the liability, or potential liability, of companies. In a speech to the European Parliament as long ago as the early 1980s Jacques Delors said that governments throughout the European Union were generally agreed that one of the major problems facing them was how to control industrial companies. Increasingly, he said, governments were turning towards the use of criminal law directly applicable to directors and managers to do so. There are two areas to explain: strict liability for hazard creation and nuisance liability. Public nuisance can be very quickly dealt with. It is a crime, and covers a multitude of sins, such things as a badly organised pop festival, obstructing the highway, throwing fireworks, selling food which is unfit for human consumption, and running a brothel. Private nuisance is the unlawful interference with use or enjoyment of land.
