Forensic Practices Related to Environmental Remediation Investigations

Abstract

A year ago the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation issued its Plenum Decree No. 49 «On some issues of applying legislation regulating environmental damage remediation». The paper examines several sections of the decree, including Section 13 (on damage compensation by recovery of costs and (or) making the defendant liable for site remediation), Section 14 (on the court’s use of fees and environmental damage assessment methodologies) and Section 18 (on the possibility of making the defendant liable for environmental remediation if a remedial action plan is already in place), as well as forensic practices involved in their enforcement. The authors conclude that substantive remediation of environmental damage requires the assessment of potential costs of remedial action by means of forensic environmental investigation and preparation of recultivation and other remedial project plans.