ABSTRACT
Major environmental catastrophes over the years have highlighted the inadequacies of national laws for dealing with issues of liability for damage caused. For example, traditional English tort law only provides remedies for those who have suffered personal injury or damage to property. It does not attach liability for damage to aspects of the environment that are incapable of being owned, including the environment in general and biodiversity in particular. This, together with the technical requirements of much of the law of tort, often allows polluters to escape their responsibility. For these reasons tort law is widely regarded as failing to provide an adequate incentive to those engaged in potentially harmful activities to take steps to ensure that the environment is protected.
