Implementing the Community Environmental Liability Directive: Genetically Modified Organisms and the Problem of Unknown Risk

Abstract

Abstract This chapter assesses the role for environmental liability in the context of the GMOs, with emphasis on the provisions of the Community Environmental Liability Directive. It commences with discussion of the role of liability regimes more generally (adopting Coasean analysis) and compares and contrasts the Environmental Liability Directive with the Lugano Convention. The application of the Environmental Liability Directive is then considered in detail, with particular attention devoted to: the definition of environmental damage, the basis of liability (whether strict or grounded upon fault), the use of the administrative liability model, and risk allocation and insurance. The chapter concludes that the Community regime has serious limitations. Not least, its territorial application is largely restricted to the Natura 2000 network of protected wildlife sites, where GM crop cultivation is in practice unlikely to occur.

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542482.003.0009

Journal

The Regulation of Genetically Modified Organisms: Comparative Approaches

Year

2010