환경정의의 관점에서 본 환경책임법제에 대한 소고

Abstract

Today many countries are trying to establish ‘environmental liability act’ that can rectify environmental injustice and distribute environmental benefit fairly to each member while apportioning the loss evenly. Korea recognizes the necessity of ‘environmental liability act’ and is trying to legalize such act. An important issue in enacting ‘environmental liability act’ lies with the distribution of environmental damages and losses among its victims, polluters and society according to the responsibility of the respective parties. More specifically, it should be enacted in the light of four concepts of environmental justice: corrective justice, distributive justice, social justice and procedural justice. Thus to establish such ‘environmental liability act’ which corresponds to environmental justice, the concept of environmental damage should be clearly defined and the range of which is to be recovered or compensated should be decided. In constructing a legislative system related to environmental responsibility, the Act should adopt strict liability which considers victims as a vulnerable social group and is apt to redistribute risks. The Act should not only comprise a civil relief system as an ex-post measure but also a public relief system as a preventive control system in the relief of environmental damages. Since polluter’s liability has its limit, the Act should be supplemented by a funding or a environmental insurance system to pay for damages that cannot be compensated by the polluters. Finally, it should enact provisions for the claims to information or claims of information disclosure that can realize environmental justice in terms of procedural justice.