Legal Basis for Civil Liability for Environmental Damage

Abstract

Clarification of the legal basis of civil liability for environmental damage has demonstrated the legislative inadequacy in providing adequate protection to the environment against damage suffered, especially in the light of the industrial and technological development we are witnessing, which has contributed significantly to the increase of such damage, which has become a threat to life on Earth's surface. Recourse to general rules of civil law has been reserved to maximize protection against such damages despite limitations on civil liability of a contractual nature. Tort civil liability has been broader in application to environmental damage, particularly substantive ones, which have almost achieved some degree of legal protection under general rules that need to be amended to include provisions dealing with environmental damage in particular in the absence of laws that resolve environmental damage.