Environmental Law Guide. An Industry Report. Prepared by Clifford Chance

Abstract

Environmental Law Guide. An Industry Report. Prepared by Clifford Chance. Published by Lloyds of London Press Ltd., Colchester, U.K. (1991, xiv and 106 pp. incl. Contents, Tables of Cases and Legislation, Annexes and Index). Softback. Price £95 (UK). As its name suggests, this book is not a textbook on environmental law. It is a guide to the subject for those whose professional work requires a knowledge of the plethora of laws on the environment that has poured from the British legislature and the Brussels bureaucracy in recent years. The volume is organised with professional persons in mind. Three chapters cover the institutional framework, dealing with the structure of pollution control in the United Kingdom, the role of the European Community, and the meaning of ‘integrated pollution control’, a concept that has informed many of Britain's recent legislative initiatives in this area. As regards the substantive law, there are clear descriptive chapters on the central concerns of modern environmental law: air pollution; water pollution; waste and recycling; statutory nuisance; noise; and hazardous substances. Separate chapters also deal with the well-established law on health and safety and with the rather more recent but immensely significant European initiatives on environmental assessment. As far as these chapters on the structure and content of environmental law are concerned, the volume's focus does not differ substantially from that of a conventional law textbook, except for the somewhat surprising omission of any treatment of planning law. But two chapters on the implications of environmental law for business and insurance interests indicate the market at which the book is aimed. These together with the volume's style define it clearly as a business-person's text. The law is very simply and clearly laid out. The narrative is descriptive and unreflective, indeed succinct to the point of being terse. There is neither speculation about the future nor any suggestions for reform. The ‘table of cases’ (p. xiii) contains only one case. Rylands v. Fletcher, the rule in which, we are told, may ‘cover pollution cases, whereby a person is …