Public Policy Aspects Of Environmental Liability Insurance

Liability and Environment analyzes the role of law, in particular civil liability, in controlling environmental pollution and risk. In modern environmental policy, liability has become a popular instrument. In this book, Prof. Bergkamp takes a fresh look at civil liability for environmental harm in an inter- and transnational context. Over the last decade, industry's liability exposure for environmental harm has expanded significantly. At the international, EC, and national level proposals for onerous strict environmental liability regimes are pending. The `polluter pays principle', which is an articulation of the `cost internalization' theory in the environmental area, is believed to justify such liability regimes. Applying an instrumental approach to legal instruments, Prof. Bergkamp aims to redefine the role of liability in the heavily regulated environmental area. He shows that liability for environmental harm is not justified by the polluter pays principle, is an uncertain and unreliable instrument for achieving prevention, results in an inefficient insurance scheme, and plays a dubious role in adjusting activity levels. Based on an analysis of the basic characteristics of alternative legal instruments, Prof. Bergkamp concludes that civil liability should play a more modest, limited role in an environmental law system dominated by public law. Where deterrence is not the objective, first party insurance, compensation funds, or other public law regimes should be preferred over liability rules. In addition to civil liability of private parties, Liability and Environment discusses State liability under international, EC, and national law. Under international law, breach of a primary obligation triggers a State's liability. Prof. Bergkamp argues that this rule should be applied also to liability of private parties. In the environmental area, a business' primary obligations are spelled out in detailed permit conditions, regulations, and statutes. According to Prof. Bergkamp, only if a primary obligation is breached, a private person should be liable for environmental harm. The system that Bergkamp advocates is an objective fault liability regime, in which public environmental law defines the standard of care for both government and industry. "In rebuilding our civil liability system, we should keep in mind that what is good for industry should be good for everyone (or it is not good for anyone), we should keep in mind that what is good for private parties should be good for the state (or it is not good for either). In rebuilding our civil liability system, the international law of State responsibility, which is unpolluted by risk spreading and activity level considerations, will guide us a long way." This book is aimed at advanced law students, academic scholars, and practitioners. In addition, it will be of interest to policy and legislative analysts, legislators, and government officials. Professor Bergkamp's book cannot be described as "solving" the problems of legal and regulatory control of environmental harm, whether within a nation or internationally. As suggested before, however, the very idea of a "solution" is illusory. All legal and regulatory regimes around the world are today and will remain for the future in a state of perpetually continuing development. The virtue of this fine book is that it moves the process of that development forward by a very substantial measure. from the Foreword by George L. Priest.

This report focuses on the role of insurance and reinsurance companies in the management of environmental risks - environmental pollution risk and natural catastrophe risk in particular.

This title was first published in 2002. This convenient reference brings together notable contributions examining all aspects of the liability for environmental accidents. Articles included in the Part I of this volume examine the role of liability as a policy instrument, and provide detailed examinations of the incentive effects created by the imposition of liability, ie. Bankruptcy, litigation costs, delegation of responsibility and insurance. Those in Part II study specific environmental issues such as hazardous waste disposal and oil spills. The International Library of Environmental Economics and Policy explores the influence of economics on the development of environmental and natural resource policy. In a series of twenty five volumes, the most significant journal essays in key areas of the contemporary environmental and resource policy are collected. This convenient reference brings together the notable contributions examining all aspects of the liability for environmental accidents.

Can insurance be used as a means to obtain compliance with environmental policy? Answering this question requires examination of a broad mosaic of academic issues, including current systems available for providing compensation and deterrence, use of contracts (including insurance) as substitutes for tort law, limitations of regulatory policy-making by government agencies, pre-conditions for creation of insurance products, and market mechanisms necessary for insurance to be purchased or sold. The purpose of Managing Environmental Risk Through Insurance is to highlight the potential role that insurance and performance standards can play in managing environmental risk. Insurance can play a significant role in dealing with one of the most problematic issues facing society today - how to compensate for environmental exposures. This book analyzes the ability of insurance to play a role in managing environmental risk. It begins by outlining the role insurance plays in society in contrast to other societal tools for addressing risk: government benefit programs and imposition of involuntary liability using the court system. By so doing, the book describes the comparative advantages of insurance. The book then analyzes the insurability of the risks. Finally, the book applies the insurability analysis to three concrete environmental examples.

Environmental Liability and Insurance Recovery is for the lawyer whose practice lies at the point where two areas of the legal profession - environmental law and insurance law - intersect. These areas of the law demand the mastery of an intricately involved set of concepts, definitions, rules, and regulations - all of which are continuously developing. Insightful clarification on the topic is provided, as well as subset of the legal issues at the crossroads of environmental law and insurance law, namely, the many ways in which a party may be exposed to environmental liability and how insurance coverage may provide financial support for such liability. Topics covered include: -Statutory Liability, related to: CERCLA, the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, clean air and clean water acts -Tort Liability including nuisance, trespass, negligence, and strict liability -The General Liability Policy -Policy exclusions and defenses to coverage -Environmental impairment liability insurance

Environmental liability issues will dominate the insurance market as we move into the next century. As the problem of historic pollution moves into the forefront of public consciousness, the insurance industry will increasingly be targeted as the main contributor to clean-up costs and there are enormous liabilities stored up under old policies which underwriters and insurers will seek to avoid. Inevitably insurance cover under current policies will be restricted and new policies will emerge. This book looks at the old policies and their attached liabilities and at the new risk-transfer mechanisms available. It provides: a comprehensive analysis of the issues which the insurance industry had to address and those which it will have to address in the future; the legal stumbling blocks which plague the field of environmental insurance, such as triggerage issues, exclusion clauses, historic liability, policy limitations, criminal liability and defence costs, issues affecting underwriters, and at how companies should protect their insurance positions; how old insurance policies can be made to cover historic pollution liability and how to best manage existing environmental risk and the steps that companies should be taking now. This book is essential reading for all barristers, solicitors, insurers, reinsurers, local authorities, lawyers and planners, company directors, in-house offices, lawyers, developers and environmental consultants concerned with environmental liability.

This is the only comprehensive text on the increasingly important subject of environmental risk and insurance. The author presents many risk and insurance issues from acid rain and global warming to toxic tort law developments and the crisis with workers' compensation insurance and pollution liability coverage. This volume is the product of nearly eight years of research, which included reviewing over 250,000 pages of laws, documents, reports, and notes, as well as countless hours of investigations, interviews, and research. Basic and advanced environmental liability and insurance principles are covered, along with suggestions for financing pollution cleanups and safety programs. A new method for restructuring and improving Superfund is presented after an in-depth discussion of pertinent legal and financial issues. The book also provides local, national, and international case histories demonstrating the kinds of difficulties encountered by businesses and citizens and the solutions they have sought. All of this information, combined with the valuable charts, appendices, specimens, contracts, sample insurance policies, model letters, and certificates, makes Environmental Risk and Insurance an unmatched reference source for businesses, institutions, and government agencies caught up in the midst of analyzing their environmental risk exposures.