Civil liability and environmental protection: Italian-French looks

Abstract

With the growing awareness of environmental protection issues in contemporary societies and the increasing number and seriousness of environmental violations, civil liability emerged as one of the legal tools to be mobilized in particular in Italy and then in France and all Europe. The traditional Aquilian civil liability forged by Roman law has nevertheless had to be adapted to the specificity of the recent environmental issue. Especially through its traditional conditions of damage, of event giving rise to liability and of causal link. But also with regard to the functions of civil liability, even if the evolution of the latter makes it possible to accommodate more easily the protection of the environment with a dimension that is not only compensatory and remedial, but also punitive and preventive. However, paradoxically civil liability may appear today in several respects as a model to be more faithfully rediscovered for a more effective and coherent protection of the environment.