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There are numerous international treaties that address the subject of marine pollution. Of these the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, which was adopted at London on 12 may 1954, prohibits pollution of the sea and prescribes preventive methods without assigning responsibility for the act of pollution. This was superseded in part by the MARPOL Convention of 1973/78 which has a multiplicity of Annexes dealing extensively with oil pollution in the sea. A landmark treaty was the OPRC Convention of 1990 which addresses emergency and contingency plans to counter oil pollution by ships and offshore installations. The London Convention of 1972 requires Contracting States to adopt effective measures that would prevent marine pollution by ocean dumping and calls for the unification of policies and practices in that regard. The United States is a Party to the MARPOL and London Conventions, along with the Intervention on the High Seas Convention of 1969 and can legislate on marine pollution at two levels - at the Federal level and State level.

           Volume 85    Issue One: November 2010   The French Revision of Prescription: A Model for Louisiana?, Benjamin West Janke & François-Xavier Licari (Lead Article)      The Rome II Regulation: A Comparative Perspective on Federalizing Choice of Law, Clay H. Kaminsky   Why the Beginning Should Be the End: The Argument for Exempting Post-Complaint Materials from Rule 26(b)(5)(A)'s Privilege-Log Requirement, Douglas C. Rennie   Essay: The Quran and the Constitution, L. Ali Khan   Book Review: Saving Civil Justice: Judging Civil Justice by Hazel Genn, Elizabeth G. Thornburg   Comment, Foolish Revenge or Shrewd Regulation? Financial Industry Tax Law Reforms Proposed in the Wake of the Financial Crisis, Richard T. Page    Comment, Breathing Life Into the "Dead Zone": Can the Federal Common Law of Nuisance Be Used to Control Nonpoint Source Water Pollution?, Endre Szalay        Issue Two: November 2010   "Sports Law": Implications for the Development of International, Comparative, and National Law and Global Dispute Resolution, Matthew J. Mitten & Hayden Opie (Lead Article)    A Uniform Framework for Patent Eligibility, Efthimios Parasidis    Tracing the Origins of "Fairly Traceable": The Black Hole of Private Climate Change Litigation, Mary Kathryn Nagle    Convergence in Contort, Melissa T. Lonegrass    Comment, Forum and Venue Selection Clauses in Seaman's Employment Contracts: Can Contractual Stipulations Be Used to Defeat a Seaman's Choice of Forum or Venue in a Jones Act Claim?, Jeremy Jones    Comment, The Downside of Success: How Increased Commercialism Could Cost the NCAA Its Biggest Antitrust Defense, Jeffrey J.R. Sundram      Issue Three: February 2011  Mixed Public-Private Speech and the Establishment Clause, Claudia E. Haupt   Clarity and Confusion: RICO's Recent Trips to the United States Supreme Court, Dr. Randy D. Gordon   Did You Ever Hear of the Napoleonic Code, Stella? A Mixed Jurisdi

India is the first country to introduce environmental legislation in the constitution but because of lengthy legal procedures, it is very difficult to control environmental deterioration. There are many factors responsible for this deterioration. Coal mining is one such activity where deterioration is very severe and the present communication aims this aspect. Coal is the one of the most essential mineral having large reserves in India. It's mining and beneficiation produce a variety of pollutants. The main pollutants emitted during the processing of coal are green house gases, coal dust and acid mine drainage. Many reports on different aspects of coal mining are available including reports on emission of different pollutants but the present work is probably only of it's kind in which the authors have tried to determine environment liability directly in terms of economy. It was found that greenhouse liabilities, coal dust liability and sulphur liability are accounted for 12.07, 5.0 and 101.97 US$, making an overall 2.4% of the total economic gains due to coal mining. During the calculations approximate number of total workers and other parameters have been taken into consideration. Who pays for this irreversible damage is a question

Global strategies of clean environment, safe earth, disaster management, sustainable development and quality life: national and international obligations and priorities N. P. Rao 0 Resenhas Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 1998 - 320 páginas The Efforts Made At The International Level By The United Nations Agencies On Environ¬Mental Destination Problems And Saving The Earth From The Natural And Man-Made Disasters Are Well-Known. Besides, The Proclamation Of The International Decade For Natural Disaster Reduction And Appoint¬Ing Inter-Governmental Panels On Climatic Change, Etc., Show That All Are Concerned With The Safety Of Environment And Earth And Are Seized With The Attendant Problems Discussed Herein And Incorporated In Agenda-21 As Action Programme For Implementation By All Concerned.At The National Level Agencies Such As The Central And The State Pollution Control Boards And Other Ngos Are Involved In Pollution Abatement Programmes. Already The Global Warming Has Led To Rise In Atmospheric Temperatures. So, The Battle Is Already On At The National And International Level To Ensure Clean Environment And Safe Earth For Sustained Development And Better And Healthier Quality Of Life. At A Time When We Are Fighting Against These Problems At A Global Level, We Are Confronted At The Domestic Level With Such Calamities As The Latur Earthquake, And The East Coastal Cyclones, Typhoons, Hurricanes, Blizzards Causing Loss Of Life And Property Resulting In Untold Sufferings Mentioned In This Book.The Object Of This Book Is To Focus Attention Of All Governmental And Non-Governmental Agencies Both At The National And Inter¬National Level (Including Un, World Bank, Undp, Uncef Etc.), And At The Local Level (The Pollution Control Boards, Urban Plan¬Ning Authorities, Municipal, Industries, Health, Welfare And Safety Departments), On The Importance Of The Problems Discussed In This Book, Which Is Intended For Them. The Book Is Timely And Topical. « Menos

Oxford University Press US, 2008 - 600 páginas Environmental harm is commonly associated with companies that extract, consume, and pollute our shared natural resources. Rarely are the 'unseen polluters,' the financiers that sponsor and profit from eco-damaging corporations, placed at the forefront of the environmental debate. By focusing on these unseen polluters, Benjamin Richardson provides a comprehensive examination of socially responsible investment (SRI), and offers a guide to possible reform. Richardson proposes that greater regulatory supervision of SRI will help ensure that the financial sector prioritizes ethically-based investments. In Socially Responsible Investment Law, he suggests that new governmental reforms should encourage companies to participate in socially responsible investments by providing a better mix of standards and incentives for SRI through measures that include redefining the fiduciary responsibilities of institutional investors to incorporate environmental concerns. By doing so, Richardson posits that corporate financiers, including banks, hedge funds, and pension plans, will become more accountable to the goals of ensuring sustainable development.

672. Steven Shavell, The Corrective Tax versus Liability As Solutions to the Problem of Harmful Externalities, 7/10. Abstract: Although the corrective tax has long been viewed by economists as a theoretically desirable remedy for the problem of harmful externalities, its actual use has been limited, mainly to the domain of pollution. Liability, in contrast, has great importance in controlling harmful externalities. I compare the tax and liability here in theory and suggest that the conclusions help to explain the observed predominance of liability over taxation, except in the area of pollution. The following factors are emphasized in the analysis: inefficiency of incentives under taxes when, as would be typical, it would be impractical for the state to incorporate into taxes all of the variables that significantly affect expected harm; efficiency of incentives under strict liability, which requires only that actual harms be measured; efficiency of incentives to exercise precautions under the negligence rule; administrative cost advantages of liability deriving from its being applied only when harm occurs; and dilution of incentives under liability when suit would be unlikely or injurers would not be able to pay fully for harms caused.

Environmental principles: from political slogans to legal rules Nicolas de Sadeleer 3 Resenhas Oxford University Press, 2002 - 433 páginas Environmental law has always responded to risks posed by industrial society but the new generation of risks have required a new set of environmental principles, emerging from a combination of public fears, science, ethics and established legal practice. This book shows how three of the most important principles of modern environmental law grew out of this new age of ecological risk: the polluter pays principle, the preventive principle and the precautionary principle. The author examines the legal force of these principles and in the process offers a novel theory of norm formation in environmental law by unearthing new grounds of legality.

The precautionary principle in the law of the sea: modern decision making in international law Simon Marr 1 Resenha Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2003 - 253 páginas The content and status of the precautionary principle remains highly debated and various questions arise, such as its status as a rule of customary international law, including its scope, addressee, triggering threshold, precautionary action measures, and eventually limits of the principle. Thus, this book examines the present state of affairs regarding the implementation of the principle in the law of the sea in different sectors, e.g. pollution of the marine environment, conservation and management of living marine resources, and transboundary transports of radioactive and hazardous wastes. In addition, it extracts evidence of its acceptance as part of customary international law, and indicates that below this level there is also an emerging practice of international law of applying the precautionary principle in a common way.

The precautionary principle in the 20th century: late lessons from early warnings Poul Harremoës 5 Resenhas Earthscan, 2002 - 268 páginas The Precautionary Principle is widely seen as fundamental to successful policies for sustainability. It has been cited in international courts and trade disputes between the US and the EU, and invoked in an growing range of political debates. Understanding what it can and cannot achieve is therefore crucial. This volume looks back over the last century to examine the role the Principle played or could have played, in a range of major and avoidable public disasters. Among the studies it examines are: asbestos and asbestosis, BSE in cattle, CFCs and the depletion of stratospheric ozone, the pollution of the Great Lakes in America, the collapse of Atlantic fish stocks, PCBs, etc., for all of which there is good information on the science, the health and environmental impacts, and the costs and benefits. From detailed investigation of how each disaster unfolded, what the impacts were and what measures were adopted, the authors draw lessons and establish criteria that could help to minimize the health and environmental risks of future technological, economic and policy innovations. The result is an absorbing, informative and valuable book for all those from lawyers and policy-makers, to researchers and students needing to understand or apply the Principle.

Comparing environmental risks: tools for setting government priorities J. Clarence Davies 0 Resenhas Resources for the Future, 1996 - 157 páginas The budgetary squeeze occurring at all levels of government in the 1990s has made it obvious that the nation cannot address every existing and prospective environmental problem. Criticism of current programs focuses especially on the low levels of risk posed by many of the problems being subjected to regulation while more important problems may go unaddressed. Comparative risk assessment is increasingly advanced as the appropriate means for setting realistic priorities. Comparing Environmental Risks: Tools for Setting Government Priorities illuminates the increased efforts of the executive branch of the federal government to use risk assessment in its decisionmaking. While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pioneered the use of comparative risk assessment (CRA) in its programs and routinely uses risk assessments of individual pollutants, the agency has not made use of CRA throughout the full range of its activities. Nor has any other federal agency. The President's Office of Science and Technology Policy has sought the assistance of Resources for the Future in formulating methods to make broader use of CRA throughout the executive branch. RFF's Center for Risk Management commissioned background papers from leading experts on CRA for presentation at a meeting with federal regulatory officials in February 1994. Comparing Environmental Risks presents the papers of this workshop, revised to include input from the meeting. The book outlines the evolution of CRA and its surrounding controversy, summarizes lessons learned from past efforts at implementation, and identifies new ways for using CRA. Representing the state of the art on programmatic CRA, the methodological analyses andpractical recommendations contained in Comparing Environmental Risks will be invaluable to all public officials and other analysts faced with

Handbook of environmental risk assessment and management Peter Calow 0 Resenhas Wiley-Blackwell, 1998 - 590 páginas At the heart of environmental protection is risk assessment: the likelihood of pollution from accidents; the likelihood of problems from normal and abnormal operation of industrial processes; the likely impacts associated with new synthetic chemicals; and so on. Currently, risk assessment has been very much in the news--the risks from BSE and E. coli, and the public perception of risks from nuclear waste, etc. This new publication explains how scientific methodologies are used to assess risk from human activities and the resultant objects and wastes, on people and the environment. Understanding such risks supplies crucial information--to frame legislation, manage major habitats, businesses and industries, and create development programmes. Unique in combining the science of risk assessment with the development of management strategies. Covers science and social science (politics, economics, psychology) aspects. Very timely - risk assessment lies at the heart of decision making in various topical environmental questions (BSE, Brent Spar, nuclear waste).

The Perfect Spill: Solutions for Averting the Next Deepwater Horizon By Robert Costanza, David Batker, John Day, Rusty Feagin, M. Luisa Martinez, Joe Roman National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) f we refuse to take into account the full cost of our fossil fuel addiction-if we don't factor in the environmental costs and national security costs and true economic costs-we will have missed our best chance to seize a clean energy future." -President Barack Obama, Carnegie Mellon University, June 2, 2010 he continuing oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon is causing enormous economic and ecological damage. Estimates of the size and duration continue to escalate, but it is now the largest in U.S. history and clearly among the largest oil spills on record.1 s efforts to plug the leak and clean up the damages continue, it is not too soon to begin to draw lessons from this disaster. We need to learn from this experience so we can prevent future oil spills, reevaluate society's current trajectory, and set a better course. ne major lesson is that our natural capital assets and other public goods are far too valuable to continue to put them at such high risk from private interests. We need better (not necessarily more) regulation and strong incentives to protect these assets against actions that put them at risk. While the Obama administration's demand for a trust fund to compensate injured parties is appropriate, it arrived only after the fact. Common asset trusts and new financial instruments like assurance bonds would be better able to shift risk incentives and prevent disasters like the Deepwater Horizon. The Costs: Damages to Natural Capital Assets he spill has directly and indirectly affected at least 20 categories of valuable ecosystem services in and around the Gulf of Mexico. The $2.5 billion per year Louisiana commercial fishery has been almost completely shut down. As the oil extends to popular Gulf Coast beaches, the loss of tourism

The effects that natural events have on the environment directly and indirectly may be harmful to people. Forest fires and volcanoes harm air quality. Hurricanes and floods can contaminate water supplies and damage wastewater facilities. Any of these can spread contaminated materials into the environment. People's response to natural events can also harm either themselves or the environment. Improper use of portable generators or supplemental heating devices can release deadly carbon monoxide. De-icing agents and ice melting compounds can pollute waterways. Exceptionally large amounts of debris can present serious disposal problems for state and local communities.

Socializing Risk: The New Energy Economics May 27, 2010frankackermanLeave a commentGo to comments from Frank Ackerman Despite talk of a moratorium, the Interior Department's Minerals and Management Service is still granting waivers from environmental review for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, including wells in very deep water. Until last month, most of us never thought about the risk that one of those huge offshore rigs would explode in flames and then sink, causing oil to gush out uncontrollably and befoul the oceans. The odds seemed low, and still do: Aren't there lots of drilling rigs in use, year after year? Twenty years ago, your elected representatives thought that you'd be happy to have them adopt a very low cap on industry's liability for oil spill damages.  Nuclear power was never quite free of fears; it was too clearly a spin-off of nuclear weapons to ignore the risk of a very big bang. Yet as its advocates point out, we have had hundreds of reactor-years of experience, with only a few accidents. (And someday when Nevada's politicians aren't looking, maybe we can slip all of our nuclear waste into a cave in the desert.) Again, the risks are so low that you'd be happy to learn about a law limiting industry's liability for accidents, wouldn't you?  Environmentalists have long warned that the world could run out of energy and resources, from the "limits to growth" theories of the 1970s to the more recently popular notion of "peak oil." The response from economists has been that prices for energy and raw materials are still moderate, and declined over the course of the 20th century; if we are running out of something, why doesn't its price skyrocket? The problem is that what we're running out of is low-risk conventional energy supplies. Because our economy conceals and socializes energy risks, prices remain deceptively low for an increasingly risky energy supply. The market wasn't supposed to work this way. In the

How should we deal with societal ills such as crime, poverty, pollution, terrorism, and corruption? The Character of Harms argues that control or mitigation of 'bad' things involves distinctive patterns of thought and action which turn out to be broadly applicable across a range of human endeavors, and which need to be better understood. Malcolm Sparrow demonstrates that an explicit focus on the bads, rather than on the countervailing goods (safety, prosperity, environmental stewardship, etc.) can provide rich opportunities for surgically efficient and effective interventions - an operational approach which he terms 'the sabotage of harms'. The book explores the institutional arrangements and decision-frameworks necessary to support this emerging operational model. Written for reflective practitioners charged with risk-control responsibilities across the public, private, and non-governmental sectors, The Character of Harms makes a powerful case for a new approach to tackling the complex problems facing society

Maril Hazlett, "Voices from the Spring: SilentSpring and the Ecological Turn in American Health," in Seeing NatureThrough Gender (2003). I used it in a Freshman seminar on the historyof pollution and the students seemed to find it useful as it showedhow industrial interests tried to discredit her findings in all sortsof bizarre ways.

Deep Trouble: Legal Ramifications of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill  This Issue will examine the wide range of legal and regulatory issues raised by the Deepwater Horizon disaster and resulting oil spill. Topics discussed will include marine pollution law, personal injury and death claims, the international legal implications of the spill, and issues related to corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. Contributing are Professors Robert Force, Martin Davies, and Joshua Force, Professor Craig Allen, John deGravelles, Esq., Neale deGravelles, Esq., Dave Sump, Esq., and Professors Miriam Cherry and Judd Sneirson. Dean David D. Meyer will provide an introduction.

Symposium examines legal issues from BP oil spill Filed under Announcements, InsideUF (Campus), Top Stories on Thursday, September 9, 2010. GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Legal responses to the disaster caused by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill this summer are wide-ranging and varied, according to law professors from the University of Florida Levin College of Law who have been studying laws and policies that can determine liability for such environmental disasters. A symposium outlining the legal basis for responding to the oil spill will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, in the Martin H. Levin Legal Advocacy Center at UF's Levin College of Law. The public is invited. Symposium participants include six UF law faculty members, one UF sociology faculty member and six UF law students who have studied the legal structures governing follow-up decisions in the aftermath of the spill along the Gulf Coast. The symposium will examine: 1. Florida laws governing oil spills, including a comparison of laws in other states affected by the spill, which are Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas; 2. Federal and admiralty laws relating to oil spills and recovery, including the Oil Pollution Act, which is the central authority on oil spills at the federal level; 3. Types of recovery that can include natural resource restoration, economic compensation for individuals, communities, and businesses, and punitive damages or fines; 4. The claims process established initially by BP and now administered by Kenneth Feinberg through the Gulf Coast Claims Facility; 5. Responses from commissions established by the State of Florida and by President Obama; and 6. Legislative actions that could assist oil spill victims. "We are in the initial stages of developing a legal framework for examining the law and policy issues that will be discussed throughout the region in the coming months and even years," said Jon Mills, who chairs UF law's Oil Spill Working Group and also serves on the univer

Apprivoiser les catastrophes Pourquoi consacrer un numéro aux risques quand les publications se multiplient sur cette question ? Jocelyne DuboisMaury et Claude Chaline en particulier dressent un panorama quasi exhaustif de tous les risques naturels dont l'espace urbain est menacé, et des différentes mesures légales prévues pour l'en préserver. Mais qu'a voulu dire Ulrich Beck en parlant de « société du risque », et que cherchent à évoquer ceux qui comme Anthony Giddens en GrandeBretagne ou JeanPierre Dupuy en France lui ont emboîté le pas ? De grands corps d'ingénieurs, celui des Ponts et Chaussées et celui des Mines, ont évité aux Français depuis le XVIII e siècle de se poser ce genre de question. Le corps des Ponts et Chaussées s'est constitué pour entraver tout ce qui nuisait à la circulation des personnes et des marchandises, en utilisant la main d'oeuvre au chômage dans les campagnes. D'emblée il s'est mis en travers des risques d'atteinte à l'ordre public et c'est ce qui a fait son succès. Quant au corps des Mines il s'est distingué en calculant des machines qui diminuaient le risque d'accident tout en améliorant le rendement. Dès le Siècle des lumières l'État se constitue comme gestionnaire d'une « société du risque » où la prévention des aléas joue un rôle moteur dans l'amélioration des choses. De travaux en travaux cette amélioration devient tout à fait réelle. L'évolution de la norme est éclairante à ce sujet. C'est ainsi que la circulaire Caquot en 1949 invite à dimensionner les égouts de façon que la crue centennale soit avalée en une heure. Les égouts de Paris sont capables de cette performance. La construction des villes nouvelles est l'occasion de découvrir que cette norme, inappliquée par la plupart des villes de province, est inapplicable financièrement en ÎledeFrance également. Des solutions fort élégantes sont trouvées en allant chercher des i