Recent trends in determining the law applicable to claims of liability and compensation for environmental damage

Abstract

According to the traditional concept of the private international law, the law applicable to claims of liability and compensation for environmental damage is the local law, i.e., the law of the place of occurrence of the act that gives rise to the obligation of compensation, given that they are among the non-contractual obligations that are subject to the law of their place of occurrence as a general rule. Nevertheless, recent trends have emerged on this subject, some of which try to exclude local law, and call for the application of other laws that are more appropriate; most importantly are: personal law, bench law, law of will, and the law that is more favorable to the victim. Others call for the adaptation of local law by looking at the recent development in the system of civil liability of an international nature and this is achieved by defining the applicable law based on the idea of the social focus of facts, and circumstances surrounding the claim, without relying on any physical or geographical focus, and thus the applicable local law is more consistent and responsive to dealing with this type of claim.