The Principle Polluter- Pays and the Civil Liability Related to the Environment

• Author: Livia Mocanu
• Position: Valahia University of Târgoviste, Faculty of Juridical, Social and Political Sciences
• Pages: 44-50

The Principle Polluter– Pays and the Civil Liability Related to the

Environment

Livia Mocanu

Valahia University of Târgovişte,

Faculty of Juridical, Social and Political Sciences

Abstract: The anal ysis of the liability resulting from the effects on the environment involves also

the reference to the principle t he polluter – pays. This principle imposes to the operators the cost of

the preventive measures and action against the pollution resulting from their activities

independently of any culpa. It laid the foundation for a special liability regime instituted at t he

communitarian level by Directive no. 2004/35/CE regarding the environment liability in order to

prevent and repair ecologic damages, transposed into the Romanian law by G.U.O. no. 68/2007

concerning the environment liability with reference to the prevention and repair of the prejudices

on the en vironment. The present study h as as object the analysis of the foundations of this special

regime and complex of engaging and realizing the operato r “liability”, as well as the extent to

which this liability system represents a corollary of the principle polluter – pays.

Keywords: polluter, responsibility, environment.

1. Introduction

The classical mechanism of civil responsibility forces the author of an illegal fact to repair its

damageable consequences, as long as there is a causative relation between generating factor and

prejudice. The responsibility based on fault represents the general principle of delictual civil

responsibility in regulation art. 998-999 Civ. C.

The social realities, the increase of danger for anonymous accidents, with serious and irreducible

effects, determined a reformation of civil responsibility, emphasizing fault objectivation.1 A new

consolidation of delictual civil responsibility justifies the engagement of the obligation to repair

the damage, considering first of all the victim’s interest to re-establish the previous situation by

repairing the damage suffered.

The objectivation of responsibility law corresponds to the transition from fault responsibility to

responsibility aiming, before anything, at repairing the damage, the fault being presumed or in the

absence of any mistake.2 This phenomenon is not only specific for environmental law, it can be

observed in responsibility law in general.

1 For details, on the objective consolidation of d elictual civil responsibility in the c ontemporary period see,

Lacrima Rodica Boilă, Răspunderea civilă delictuală obiectivă, C.H. Beck Publishing House, Bucharest,

2008, p. 37-96.

2 Agathe Van Lang, Droit de l'environnement, T hémis droit, Paris, 2002, p. 270.

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