환경오염피해구제를 위한 민사법제의 개선방안 및 대안모색

Abstract

ⅰ) Just a thought of the phenol leakage accident of Doosan Electronic Corporation occurred in 1991, the hydrofluoric acid release accident occurred in Gumi in 2014, the accident of oil leakage in Yeosu in 2014, the explosion accident at a chemical factory reported recently, etc. gives us a good lesson that just one industrial facility can cause an enormous environmental pollution accident. Hence, now is the proper time to legislate an environmental responsibility act which recognize an strict liability as a method of improving the environmental pollution damage compensation in Korea. ⅱ) The civil law revised recently confirmed a meaningful revision concerning the use of the injunction about environmental pollution. It confirmed the revision of Article 217 of the Civil Law which makes clear the injunction and also confirmed a new stipulation for the request for the right to injunction, and if the request for the right to injunction is legislated, it seems that the basis stipulation for the right to injunction will be two. ⅲ) Concerning the request for damage compensation due to environmental pollution, judicial precedents of Korea take probability, but there are difficulties with the confirmation of offenders and the establishment of the relationship of cause and effect. Moreover, there is a limitation on the compensation to the victim if the offender is not able to compensate for damage and because there is no clear stipulation concerning the compensation for ecological damage. Therefore, an environmental responsibility act should be legislated which recognizes an strict liability concerning the compensation for environmental pollution damage. ⅳ) When the environmental responsibility act is enacted, the strict responsibility based on the facility responsibility, the written exemption stipulation about unavoidable events, the stipulation about the relief of establishment of causal relationships and the right to request for information, the responsibility insurance system for the performance of damage compensation, etc. should be adopted. However, regarding an unaccountable reason, the damage due to non-existence of reason, there should be a careful consideration in legislation for any compensation that should be made by the nation. ⅴ) When legislating the environmental responsibility law, there should not be an attempt to solve all problems at a time, but the matters that are sufficiently considered by referring to the environmental responsibility law of Germany, etc. should be included in the legislation and others should be included in the law after sufficient consideration later.