Reflexiones sobre los lineamientos que debe seguir la ley de responsabilidad medioambiental para los estados latinoamericanos

Abstract

This article seeks to answer the following question: What guidelines should an internal law of environmental State responsibility be based upon for each country in Latin America? To begin to resolve this question, it is necessary to set out the thematic methodological framework to be directed to the lawmakers of each State. Through this they can be made aware of guidelines that ought to be followed in order to facilitate both the discussion about, and the creation of, internal models of state responsibility for the environment in Latin America. Based upon the foregoing, in order to briefly contribute to the theoretical strengthening of the discipline, this article establishes the following as essential ingredients for the initial analysis for the construction of law on state environmental responsibility: 1. Establish specific international law guidelines to be applied to the matter, so as to be able to implement them normatively; 2. Establish the main comparative law regimes of the “Common Law” (USA) and Continental Law (European Community), as essential sources of legal norms on environmental responsibility; 3. Become knowledgeable of the principles attributed to environmental responsibility, in order to guide the development of future law and 4. Highlight the main elements which generate state responsibility (Damages, agent behavior and causal or imputation relationship).