Harm to Nature as a Legal Concept

[기조연설]
Harm to Nature as a Legal Concept
1)
Daniel A. Farber*
Contents
Ⅰ. Introduction
Ⅱ. Understanding and Measuring Harm to Nature
Ⅲ. Harm to Nature as a Legal Injury
Ⅳ. Conclusion
Ⅰ. Introduction
The law is normally concerned with physical harm to human beings or harm
to their property. The idea of providing legal protection to nature, even when
it is not owned or actively used by humans, may seem romantic or wildly
idealistic. Yet, legal systems have begun to recognize damage to nature as a
legally actionable injury. Harm to nature can even be subject of financial
compensation, just like physical or economic harm to humans. Thus, what was
once perhaps merely a vision by some environmentalists has now started to
become true: the rights of nature actually receive some degree of legal protection.
It is important to understand some of the major threats to nature today and
of how the value of nature can be established in quantitative, economic terms.
Those are the subjects of Part II. Part III considers the degree to which harm
to nature can provide a basis for legal standing, using American law as an example. Part III then considers compensation for damage to nature in U.S. and EU law, and then in international. Part IV then summarizes and draws some
general conclusions.
* Sho Sato Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley.