Environmental Tort Law

The link between an actor’s behavior and the subsequent harm to another human being is a vital component of various types of legal doctrines. Tort law has been exclusively used for the distributive justice and deterrent of certain behaviors. In the case of torts, plaintiff needs to show a casual connection between his/her injury in correspondence to the defendant’s action in order to clarify the person from whom the remedies should come. However, it’s conceptually and factually very tiring to pinpoint the actors accountable for the injury. Especially in case of environmental pollution, it is difficult to identify the polluter and sources of pollution. Moreover, it is also very difficult to quantify the injury caused by his/her actions.

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The deterrent effects of tort law usually appear in the reduced pollution discharge, improved environmental quality, or the introduction of environmental factors into the decision making process of polluting organizations. The US and Canada expanded the liability for the hazardous waste in the early 1980s which led to the increased care in the disposal of such wastes.

Environmental tort law supports the principles of “prevention, protection, conservation, and deterrence”. The fact that tort law focuses on the distributive justice and deterrence makes it a lucrative topic of discussion among the scholars of economics and law.

Moreover, the interests resolved by the tort law system are always the direct harms to an individual or legally recognized entity. This is the most fundamental requirement for the tort suit. Tort system cannot provide remedy for harm related to environment interest which does not have direct injury and recognition of harm. Due to the failure to satisfy the standing and direct injury requirements, historically courts have viewed claims of environmentalist with great

Trespass is an intentional, voluntary intrusion or an invasion of the tangible property of someone else that interfere with his/her right of ownership of the property. ‘Trespass to land’ is one of the early forms of tort law. The person involved in trespassing may be liable for either negligent or intentional trespass. Originally it was intended to protect the tangible invasion of real property. But now the doctrine of tort law has been extended to include even the settling of dusts and vapors on one’s property. Hence, the gasoline leak from the service station if harms the property in nearby neighborhood is considered as trespass or even