Civil Liability for Environmental Damage

Protecting nature and preserving its health is emphasized by different religions and human mind. Enjoying a healthy environment is a fundamental human right. Any damage to the environment requires compensation of damages incurred, which is within the scope of civil liability. The key question here is what is the nature of civil liability for environmental damage? How does choosing the right nature affect adopting the right basis for civil liability for environmental damage and its effects? In this descriptive-analytical paper, the combined nature of public and private law has been considered for civil liability resulting from environmental damage. In terms of governmentchr('39')s supervision role in manufacturing and industrial activities and its ability to sue people who incur damage to the environment, this responsibility is subject to public law and in terms of the possibility of compensation claim where a human, besides nature, has been damaged (in accordance with the general rules of civil liability) this liability is subject to private law. By choosing this trend, principles such as doctrine (theory) of fault or theory of risk as the basis of civil liability for environmental damages appear to be incompatible with the said compositional nature. The accepted jurisprudential basis to guarantee the right of the damaged (nature or human) is "respect" theory. The theory of "Strict liability" is also legally acceptable regarding the role of deleterious person and difficulty of proving fault and with regard to the characteristics of environmental damage. In what follows, given this compositional nature and mixed basis, compensation methods and competent court procedures have been elaborated to file an action of civil liability against environmental damages. Please cite this article as: Houshmand Firozabadi H, Lotfi Z, Bahrami Z, Saiani R. Civil Liability for Environmental Damage. Iran J Med Law 2020; 14(54): 183-213.