6. Statutory Liabilities and Remedies

Abstract

An important feature of environmental law is the creation of statutory schemes that impose liability on those that engage in environmental deleterious activity and/or require them to remediate environmental harm. This chapter discusses three different statutory regimes that exist in UK and EU environmental law which create liabilities, obligations, or provide remedies to address a range of environmentally related problems: statutory nuisance; the contaminated land regime under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act; and the EU Environmental Liability Directive. The chapter begins by providing a brief conceptual overview of different types of statutory liability techniques. Its aim is to give some feeling for both the conceptual complexity and the practical significance of these areas of law.