Compensation For Environmental Damage Research Articles

Налоговые аспекты возмещения вреда окружающей среде

The article attempts to analyze the tax consequences in connection with the implementation of compensation for environmental damage. In 2021, changes were made to Chapter 25 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which led to the elimination of the conflicting interpretation about the possibility of taking into account monetary compensation for environmental damage for income tax purposes, however, in relation to the natural form of compensation for harm, there is still no unambiguous approach, which does not corresponds to the constitutionally significant task of Russia as a guarantor of environmental well-being and a social state.

Monitoring and protection method as elements of a mechanism for ensuring environmental safety in the context of sustainable development

The article discusses the monitoring method and the protection method as elements of a mechanism for ensuring environmental safety in conditions of sustainable development. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the need to form a mechanism that ensures environmental safety in conditions of sustainability, combining a diagnostic method and a protection method, which is universal in nature and capable of promptly responding to environmental violations in the context of changing social relations. The effectiveness of the methods used is associated with diagnostics of the state of the environment, carried out through monitoring. The method of protection includes restoration of broken environmental relations in cases of real damage to natural benefits, by filing claims for compensation for environmental damage and imposing sanctions. The justification for the socio-legal significance of the methods is carried out from the position of developing environmental consciousness, which ensures that subjects are deterred from unlawful environmental behavior in the future.

Legal Strategies and Challenges in Climate Change Mitigation in Vietnam: The Role of Non-Contractual Damages Compensation

Abstract Vietnam is exploring numerous strategies to combat climate change, with a growing emphasis on enhancing national legal provisions, particularly those related to non-contractual environmental damage compensation. However, it is a matter of debate whether Vietnam’s current regulations on non-contractual damages effectively contribute to climate change mitigation. This article highlights both the impact and limitations of existing laws concerning environmental non-contractual damages. It argues for a legal approach that prioritizes preventing wrongful environmental acts over merely addressing their consequences. This article is structured into four parts: (i) An overview of climate change in Vietnam; (ii) Comparative analysis of non-contractual compensation for climate-related damages across various jurisdictions, (iii) An examination of Vietnam’s legal framework for non-contractual compensation due to environmental pollution; and (iv) Conclusions and recommendations.

Assessment of ecological damage from illegal fishing and judicial practice for damage compensation

In the context of China's comprehensive trial of an ecological damage compensation system, the lack of a widely accepted assessment model for assessing ecological damage caused by illegal fishing will inevitably affect the fairness of judicial rulings and the success of ecological restoration. In this study, we examined a typical illegal fishing case with a significant impact in China to illustrate the multi-dimensional damage caused by bottom trawls to the offshore ecosystem during a fishing moratorium as the first step in establishing a unified enforcement standard. Based on existing research, damage is divided into two types: quantifiable and unquantifiable. The former mainly refers to the ecological damage corresponding to illegal catches, while the latter includes habitat damage, mortality after escape, disturbance of spawning behaviour, and potential egg losses related to illegal catches. Quantifiable damage is the main basis for judging ecological environmental damage compensation cases, but it has not been fully utilized due to the lack of guiding documents. For unquantifiable damages, the “judicial discretion” of judges may be an effective measure to deal with this challenge. In addition, a preliminary amount correlation among two damage types was established based on a weight-based expert scoring method. This study provides a reference for China to establish a compensation mechanism for the ecological damage caused by illegal fishing in the future and can be applied to other regions plagued by illegal fishing around the world.

Research on Compensation System for Ecological Environment Damage—Taking Ganzi Prefecture of Sichuan Province as an Example

The construction of ecological civilization is a process of sustainable development. Environmental protection extends from individual interests to social public interests, from general tort compensation to environmental public interest litigation and ecological environmental damage compensation, which effectively improves the ecological environment. As the most important natural forest distribution area in Sichuan Province, Ganzi Prefecture is an important part of the ecological protection barrier and “China Water tower” in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. It is rich in forest, grassland and wetland resources and has a good ecological environment. This paper mainly makes an empirical study of the ecological environment damage compensation system in Ganzi Prefecture, and puts forward some suggestions for improving the system.

Legal problems of the existence of "sacrifice" zones as an indicator of environmental injustice

In order to ensure proper implementation of the principle of environmental justice, which is based on guaranteeing the realization of citizens’ right to an environment safe for life and health, it is necessary to identify all possible environmental risks that block the achievement of such a goal. The system of identifying the most environmentally dangerous enterprises and measures to ensure their environmental safety, introduced by domestic legislation, is considered insufficient in the framework of ensuring environmental justice, since it does not guarantee overcoming the ecological risk of technogenically polluted territories, and therefore makes it impossible to realize the constitutional right of citizens to an environment safe for life and health. This is evidenced by the movement initiated in foreign practice in order to recognize territories that are artificially overloaded as “sacrifice” zones.
 It was found that such zones are considered as: areas whose residents are exposed to a higher level of influence due to the neighborhood with environmentally hazardous objects; part of the legacy of environmental racism and environmental injustice; areas of mass diseases caused by consumption of polluted environment; moral stains of the nation. Therefore, in “sacrifice” zones it is not possible to guarantee the right to an environment safe for life and health, since the concept of “environment” in this case is not considered in the sense of “primordial nature”, but as “the cheapest possible”. In this case, both human life and natural resources are considered “disposable” and cannot be passed on to future generations.
 Taking into account the outlined circumstances, a scientific conclusion was formed in which it was noted that the main direction of overcoming such negative factors as the imbalance of environmental risks on the territory of Ukraine is the need for full-scale greening of material production, and at the intermediate stage - the provision of social payments to residents of “sacrifice” zones for the purpose of conditionally guaranteeing environmental justice and compensation for environmental damage caused to the health and life of people in technogenically polluted territories.

Проблемные вопросы возмещения экологического вреда: замечания на полях Обзора судебной практики Верховного Суда РФ

Author analyses some positions of the Review of judicial practice on the application of environmental legislation, approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on 24 June 2022. This review is the first dedicated entirely to environmental issues, and prepared as a result of the seminar of the Supreme Court on the practice of courts in the field of environmental protection. The author notes the presence of disputable interpretations in this review, and also highlights the various facets of the views taken by the Supreme Court and the problems of their practical implementation. Among such problems, there is a lack of uniformity in understanding the harm to the environment, the absence of many environmental quality standards as an obstacle to fair compensation for damage to nature, compensation for environmental damage for lawful activities on general terms with illegal users of natural resources, an extremely high standard of proof in cases of environmental compensation for users of natural resources, the difficulty of holding state bodies accountable, etc. The author also highlights the trends in legal regulation and law enforcement practice in the field of nature management and environmental protection outlined by the Supreme Court (“pro-state” bias in resolving disputes, strengthening the priority of monetary compensation over in-kind compensation for harm and the fiscal function of the compensation, etc.).

Ущерб окружающей среде в интерпретации российских судов

The article discusses the legal problems of compensation for environmental damage on the basis of judicial acts of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, as well as the practice of arbitrazh courts. Trends such as the priority of monetary compensation for damage over recovery in kind and the lack of correlation between the amount of compensation and the costs of recultivation have been noted. Assessment of the damage using calculating methods, as well as the way of spending the amounts recovered, in the author’s opinion, deprives monetary redress of its compensatory nature. As a result, the civil law remedy performs an improper fiscal function and provides only general prevention, but not the restoration of the disturbed state of the environment. The author proposes to change approaches to environmental damage redress, taking into account the rules on “colouring” of environmental payments that have already entered into force.

Perbandingan Ketentuan Pidana Legislasi Nasional Negara Sponsor Eksplorasi Deep-seabed Mining Pada International Seabed Authority : Masukan Bagi Indonesia

National legislation is the requirement established by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for each country sponsoring Deep-seabed Mining (DSM) and criminal provisions and sanctions are an inseparable part of it. A total of 38 countries are listed as sponsor countries, while Indonesia, with its potential as a maritime country and member of UNCLOS 1982, has not participated in DSM activities. This article aims to explore and compare the criminal provisions in the national legislation of sponsoring countries that have been approved by the ISA so that the formulation of sanctions in Indonesian national legislation can be illustrated in order to prepare Indonesia’s contribution as a sponsoring country for DSM activities in the International Seabed Area. The research method used is normative juridical with a statutory and comparative approach. The research results show that the majority of sponsoring countries in their criminal provisions stipulate criminal sanctions in the form of fines as well as the possibility of imprisonment and several administrative sanctions. Based on the results of this comparative study, it can be concluded that the formulation of sanctions that can be regulated in Indonesian national legislation is a maximum fine of more than 100 billion Rupiah and a maximum prison sentence of not less than 5 years, as well as additional criminal penalties and administrative sanctions in the form of termination or revocation of DSM activity permits, confiscation of profits resulting from illegal DSM acquisition, and compensation for environmental damage caused by DSM activities.

Liability issues for environmental damage caused by military aggression of a terrorist country

The article focuses on the issues of liability for environmental damage caused by the military aggression of a terrorist country. The subject matter of the study is the impact of the consequences of military aggression against Ukraine on the state of its natural resources, the legal characterisation of these consequences in terms of liability and issues related to compensation for the damage caused. The purpose of the study is to outline the problems arising in the course of legal determination of the possibility of bringing a terrorist country which deliberately destroys natural resources to legal liability, and the difficulties arising in determining the extent of environmental damage caused. The research methods used, in particular, logical-semantic and dialectical, made it possible to consider the main features of the concept of “ecocide” as a crime against humanity and its direct connection with the genocide of the Ukrainian people.
 The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that the negative environmental consequences of hostilities violate the norms of both Ukrainian and international law and have all the signs of ecocide, which is currently considered a crime exclusively at the level of national legislation. It has been concluded that it is possible to ensure the responsibility of the aggressor State for environmental damage through the establishment of a special international tribunal. The factors that make it difficult to determine the amount of environmental damage caused in order to ensure its further compensation have also been identified. These factors include: a significant area of damage; species diversity of natural resources that were damaged (soils, subsoil, water bodies, atmospheric air, flora and fauna, territories and objects of the nature reserve fund); the connection of natural resources, which contributes to the spread of negative effects on the environment; the international nature of environmental damage; the long-term consequences of environmental damage; the fact that it is impossible for state authorities and civil society activists to record the full extent of the negative environmental impact of hostilities due to the existing danger.
 A conclusion has been made that it is necessary to take these factors into account when developing terminology for environmental damage caused by military actions. It has also been proposed to take a number of practical measures aimed at ensuring compensation for environmental damage, in particular: to recognise the fact of environmental terrorism as part of ecocide, which is combined with genocide of the Ukrainian people, at the national and international levels; to introduce a system of continuous monitoring and recording of the damage identified; to develop methods for assessing the impact of terrorist actions on the state of each individual natural resource, taking into account the possibility, necessary means and expected timeframe for restoration to a state suitable for their intended use; to apply political and economic levers based on international law to ensure compensation for environmental damage caused by a terrorist country.

THEORETICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS OF COMPENSATION FOR DAMAGE TO THE ENVIRONMENT

This article discusses the theoretical and legal aspects of environmental damage compensation. In the Republic of Kazakhstan, the right of everyone to live in a favorable environment has been constitutionally enshrined. This indicates that it is necessary to ensure the environmental safety of not only one state, but also the state on which the well-being of the whole world depends. But practice shows that the state of the environment is alarming every year. For example, the state of soil and soil deterioration. Currently, compensation for environmental damage is one of the urgent problems of environmental law. Ensuring the ecological safety of the country largely depends on the unfavorable state of the environment. There are quite serious environmental problems affecting the state of the environment. From this point of view, consideration of theoretical and legal aspects of environmental damage compensation and specific proposals aimed at improving legislation in this area are of great importance. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the legal norms concerning environmental harm and environmental damage in the environmental legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is also noted that the issues of environmental damage should be considered from the point of view of the inseparable and organic connection of the social, environmental and economic goals of the country. In conclusion of this article, the author points out that one of the necessary conditions for compensation for damage caused by violation of environmental legislation is the elimination of contradictions between environmental and civil legislation.

EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR TRANSPORT DIESELS: ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS

On the example of the most common in the use of diesel engines of commercial vehicles, the requirements for environmental and economic indicators, their evolutionary development over the past decades and, accordingly, changes in the impact on the environment and in the consumption of natural resources are considered. Road transport in terms of traffic significantly exceeds all other modes of transport, is the main consumer of scarce hydrocarbon oil fuels; and is considered the most significant pollutant of the surrounding atmosphere with toxic substances contained in the exhaust gases of engines.
 In recent years, during the development, implementation in production and use in operation, there have been significant changes in the design, technology, manufacturing, organization of the workflow, improvement of diesel engine systems that provide fuel and air supply, purification of exhaust gases from harmful emissions into the environment. The analysis of changes in requirements, the level of achieved economic and environmental performance of diesel engines of trucks, was carried out using the fuel-environmental criterion. The calculation data and the generalization of the results of the study made it possible to determine changes in the cost of fuel and compensation for environmental damage from the harmful effects of engine exhaust gases on the environment, related to a unit of power in operation, the coefficient of relative operating environmental costs, directly fuel-environmental criterion and to give a quantitative assessment of the evolutionary development of diesel engines of trucks. It has been established that the fuel and environmental efficiency of diesel engines of trucks over the past 30 years has increased by 4.17 times, mainly due to the reduction of harmful emissions into the environment with exhaust gases.

Legal Regulation of Civil Liability for Environmental Damage: How Appropriate are Civil Liability Provisions with the Privacy of Environmental Damage?

The study analyzes the nature of civil liability resulting from environmental damage, because the risk of environmental pollution is one of the dangers that cannot be counted or predicted. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the legal basis on which it is based in the field of pollution. Traditional wrong-based liability rules do not respond to the tort-based environmental policy objectives in order to avoid environmental damage and ensure effective protection for those affected. This made the provisions of civil liability in the Jordanian Civil Law no longer commensurate with the specificity of environmental damage, especially since the situation requires compensation for damage to the environment itself and to the health and property of individuals. In addition, it is not hidden that there are shortcomings in the provisions of the Jordanian Environment Protection Law No. (6) of 2017. Its provisions included preventive and remedial measures for environmental pollution without considering the issue of compensation for environmental damage in a manner consistent with the nature and specificity of this damage. This requires the development of these rules in a way that commensurate with the nature of environmental damage.

Ecocide in National and International Criminal Law: current challenges and prospects for legal regulation

The article examines the current challenges and prospects of legal regulation of ecocide in national and international criminal law. The author analyzes the problems of prosecution for ecocide in national criminal law and the prospects for such liability in international criminal law. The authors emphasize that the armed aggression of the terrorist state of the Russian Federation against Ukraine has had a devastating impact on the environment, which will take decades to restore. Russian attacks on Ukrainian oil depots, strikes on the territory of the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology with its nuclear facility, the death of several million chickens at the Chornobaiv poultry farm, and the mass death of dolphins in the Black Sea are qualified as ecocide. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam is qualified as ecocide and a violation of the laws and customs of war. The evolution, concept, and composition of ecocide are analyzed.
 Having found its legislative consolidation in the national criminal law (Article 441 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), ecocide has not been enshrined in international criminal law. It is not recognized as a crime either in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court or in any other international legal act. As of today, Russian crimes against the environment can be investigated by the International Criminal Court as war crimes. The authors of the article emphasize the need to include the crime of ecocide in the Rome Statute, since serious damage to the environment during armed conflicts is still to some extent covered by the provisions of the Rome Statute, but such damage caused in peacetime falls outside the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
 The authors of the article note that it is important not only to punish the racists for all crimes of ecocide committed in Ukraine since 2014, but also to force the aggressor state to compensate for all environmental damage caused. When creating a compensation mechanism, we must take into account the international practice of compensation for environmental damage caused by military actions, in particular the practice of the International Court of Justice and the historical experience of creating special compensation bodies (in particular, the experience of the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), 1991-2022). The future compensation mechanism should be based on the «ecosystem services approach», which will significantly increase the amount of reparations to be paid by the Russian Federation to Ukraine. To ensure legal regulation of the concept of ecosystem services, it is necessary to develop and adopt the Law of Ukraine «On Ecosystem Services» and regulations aimed at its implementation (primarily, methods of inventory and assessment of ecosystem services).

International and national legal approaches to compensation of environmental damage caused by military actions

The article analyzes international and national legal approaches to compensation for environmental damage caused by military op It is noted that today the world experience of compensation for environmental damage caused by military operations has already been gained. It can serve as a basis for bringing the Russian aggressor to justice for causing huge environmental damage in Ukraine. In particular, the discusses the punishment for losses and damages caused to Kuwait as a result of the Iraqi military invasion and occupation. It is noted that the experience of the Compensation Commission for the Iraq-Kuwait Conflict is used by the Ukrainian side in creating an international register of damages. Ukraine also relies on the approaches to the Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which was created by the United Nations to record the consequences of Israel’s construction of the security wall against Palestine.The analyzes the legal provisions on crimes against the environment that fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The emphasizes the relevance of ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court by our country in the context of the war in Ukraine. The provisions on the protection of the natural environment in the conduct of hostilities, as defined in the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), are considered. The functioning of the Register of Damage Caused by Russia’s Aggression against Ukraine, which was recommended in the UN General Assembly Resolution (2022) and decided to be established at the Council of Europe Summit (2023), is noted.The analyzes a number of regulatory legal acts of Ukraine aimed at identifying (and recording) property damaged and destroyed as a result of hostilities, terrorist acts, and sabotage caused by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, including in the field of ecology.The author concludes that today, both at the international level and in Ukraine, there is a need to finalize the gaps in the legal framework for compensation for environmental damage caused by war.

Liability for environmental damage: the civil law aspect

The problems of liability for environmental damage are investigated. Attention is paid to the international nature of the problems associated with compensation for environmental damage, the inadmissibility of establishing territorial boundaries in the problem of environmental protection. The characteristic of the main international organizations related to environmental protection is given, the factors influencing the international cooperation in the field are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the problem of developing the system of management in the field of environmental protection and bringing to civil responsibility of entities that cause damage to natural objects. The article justifies the necessity of strengthening international cooperation in a number of directions in the sphere of environmental protection, elaboration of a unified approach to the understanding of environmental damage and its structural components, as well as elaboration of unified rules at the international level for determination of the amount of compensation payments, exacted from the inflicter of damage and aimed at compensation for the environmental damage caused.

Assessing the effect of the improvement of environmental damage compensation legal system and green finance project on the re-establishment of the ecological environment.

What are the relationships among environmental regulations, green finance, and environmental damages in countries? Existing literature supports the impact of green finance or green innovation on environmental quality, but rare studies query the cointegration among other core variables. We thus utilize the yearly data of 25 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2021 to empirically examine the relationships among access to clean energy and technology, environmental regulation, renewable green investment, subsidy on green energy, and green finance index in environmental damage compensation via an augmented mean group (AMG) and other estimators. However, the current empirical research also investigates the individual linkage of green finance components with explained variables. Overall, this study confirms the existence of cointegration relationships among these variables. Moreover, the results of AMG suggest that access to clean fuels and technology, environmental regulations, and green finance can inversely affect the explained variable in the long term. Furthermore, environmental regulations and renewable green investment positively affect environmental damages, while a separate proxy of green finance also negatively affects explained variables in the selected provinces with better environmental performance. Our empirical findings offer important policy implications for overall emerging economies to promote subsidies, environmental regulations, and green finance to improve environmental damages compensation.

Reflections on the environmental damage compensation regime in Chinese civil legislations

The chapter on Tort Liability of the new Chinese Civil Code has broadened the types of environmental torts and expanded the scope of environmental damages. After such changes, however, deficiencies still exist. Most significantly, environmental torts are not determined by illegality, which means whether national emission standards have been violated is irrelevant. As long as damages are caused, the principle of liability without fault shall be applied. Conflicts in Chinese environmental law have led to discrepancies and inconsistencies in related judicial decisions. In this regard, this paper argues that the “theory of tolerance limit” should be adopted to redefine the meaning of illegality and further identify the conception of liability without fault for environmental damages. In addition, the punitive damages system created by the Civil Code also lacks clarity in its judgment criteria. Since the purpose of private law is reparation rather than punishment, this paper recommends that the scope of punitive damages should be clarified through compensation for loss to maintain consistency in civil legislation.

Environmental damage compensation for illegal solid waste dumping in China

China aims to improve its system for pursuing environmental damage compensation environmental violation cases. To hold violators accountable, China has an effective system for the identification and assessment (I&A) of environmental damage. This study selected a typical case of the illegal dumping of solid waste (IDSW) in China to analyze the causes, the degree, and characteristics of environmental damage, focusing on components such as the physical quantification and valuation of damage. The findings were as follows: (1) Compensation claimants and obligors consider baseline damage confirmation and causality analysis key components of I&A. (2) The I&A process for a specific case needs to focus on key nodes such as the type, location, and duration of IDSW. (3) Restraining IDSW requires accurately quantifying the physical and value-related losses caused by solid waste dumping. (4) In the selected case study, the damage from environmental contamination caused by the IDSW incident amounted to 3938,990 yuan, including an environmental damage value of 3651,990 yuan and a transaction cost of 287,000 yuan. Both parties accepted the I&A calculation process in this case, and the desired punishment effect was achieved. Hence, the case study demonstrated that accurate I&A is the technical basis for environmental damage compensation. Thus, in the future, more attention should be paid to the role of scientific and technological means and knowledge reserves in the I&A of environmental damage.

Comparative characteristics of the legislation of the Russian Federation and European countries in the field of ecology

The article gives a brief overview of legislative normative acts of the Russian Federation and European countries in the field of ecology and environmental protection. The classification of legislative acts of the Russian Federation in the sphere of ecology is given, as well as their structuring with the use of the process approach. A comparative analysis of the main provisions of the environmental legislation of Russia and the EU countries has been carried out. The following can be named as promising areas of cooperation between Russia and the EU countries in the field of ecology: prevention of environmental pollution, information support of environmental problems and their solutions, preservation of natural biodiversity, elimination of pollution consequences and compensation for environmental damage.