With a considerable influence on national and international legislators, courts, public administrators and private companies, environmental principles ? such as the polluter-pays principle, sustainable development or the precautionary principle ? play an important role in the making, application and the interpretation of environmental law. As a key part of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law, this comprehensive volume provides detailed coverage of all of the important environmental principles and offers unique insights as well as wider reflection on the role played by principles. With 50 structured entries written by leading scholars from around the world the volume discusses the various environmental principles in turn, covering their impact on international cooperation, their varying importance globally, their relevance in the jurisprudence of international and European courts and their growing importance in international business practice. As well as forming an authoritative reference source, Principles of Environmental Law offers new insights into this topic, which has developed strongly over the last 50 years and has become increasingly fundamental for the future of the planet. As well as forming an indispensable guide, this important volume offers both a reflection on the evolution of the legal principles and insight into their practical application. It will prove an essential resource for students, academics, judges, company lawyers, and administrators. Contributors include: A. Aaragao, M. Alberton, S. Atapattu, V. Barral, B. Boer, N. Craik, C. Dalhammar, J. Darpoe, N. de Sadeleer, O. Dubovik, L.-A. Duvic-Paoli, T. Fajardo del Castillo, R. Fowler, M. Fuhr, M. Gestri, G. Handl, M. Hedemann-Robinson, S. Khan, R. Kibugi, S. Kingston, V. Koester, L. Kramer, K. Kulovesi, R. Lefeber, R. Macrory, C.W. Malcomb, G.J. Martin, E. Meidinger, I. Michallet, B. Milligan, M. Montini, E. Morgera, D.M. Ong, E. Orlando, A. Panovic, O. Pedersen, M. Peeters, M. Prieur, A. Proelss, L. Rajamani, C. Redgwell, M. Reese, A. Roehricht, G. Roller, J. Schenten, P. Schwartz, D. Spitzer, T. Stephens, H. Strydom, P. Taylor, E. Tsioumani, J.B. Wiener, G. Winter, Y. Zhao

Environmental harms exert a significant toll and pose substantial economic costs on societies around the world. Although such harms have been studied from both legal and social science perspectives, these disciplinary-specific approaches are not, on their own, fully able to address the complexity of these environmental challenges. Many legal approaches, for example, are limited by their inattention to the motivations behind environmental offences, whereas many social science approaches are hindered by an insufficient grounding in current legislative frameworks. This edited collection constitutes a pioneering attempt to overcome these limitations by uniting legal and social science perspectives. Together, the book's contributors forge an innovative socio-legal approach to more effectively respond to, and to prevent, environmental harms around the world. Integrating theoretical and empirical work, the book presents carefully selected illustrations of how legal and social science scholarship can be brought together to improve policies. The various chapters examine how a socio-legal approach can ultimately lead to a more comprehensive understanding of environmental harms, as well as to innovative and effective responses to such environmental offences.

The role of law in responding to global environmental problems and the interplay between different levels of regulation and governance is becoming increasingly relevant in the field of liability and reparation for environmental damage. This book examines the relationship and reciprocal influences between the EU and the international legal order in a multilevel and comparative perspective, in relation to the ongoing efforts to elaborate effective regimes of liability and reparation for environmental damage. It offers a comparative analysis of legal developments in the field of environmental liability within the EU and at the international law level and addresses questions concerning the impact of such interaction on the development, implementation and enforcement of appropriate responses to environmental damage within the respective legal orders and on a global level. Given the book’s focus and the transnational legal dimension of the issues covered, this volume will be of great interest to legal academics and researchers working in the environmental law field from an EU law and international law perspective, as well as more generally to scholars interested in the study of the relationship between EU and international law. Outside academia, the book will also be of great interest to practitioners wishing to get insights into the application of the law of environmental liability in the EU and at the international law level.

Environmental harms exert a significant toll and pose substantial economic costs on societies around the world. Although such harms have been studied from both legal and social science perspectives, these disciplinary-specific approaches are not, on their own, fully able to address the complexity of these environmental challenges. Many legal approaches, for example, are limited by their inattention to the motivations behind environmental offences, whereas many social science approaches are hindered by an insufficient grounding in current legislative frameworks. This edited collection constitutes a pioneering attempt to overcome these limitations by uniting legal and social science perspectives. Together, the book's contributors forge an innovative socio-legal approach to more effectively respond to, and to prevent, environmental harms around the world. Integrating theoretical and empirical work, the book presents carefully selected illustrations of how legal and social science scholarship can be brought together to improve policies. The various chapters examine how a socio-legal approach can ultimately lead to a more comprehensive understanding of environmental harms, as well as to innovative and effective responses to such environmental offences.