《英文传统侵权分析不适用于环境风险SSRN-id1520617》.pdf

The Inapplicability of Traditional Tort Analysis to Environmental Risks: The Example of Toxic Waste Pollution Victim Compensation Persons injured by toxic substances that have migrated from haz- ardous waste disposal sites may in theory sue in tort for redress for their injuries. In practice, however, they are unlikely to receive tort compensation. Toxic waste disposal injuries are fundamentally dif- ferent from the individualized, immediate wrongs for which tort law developed. The differences--especially the time lag between disposal and injury and the indeterminacy of causation of the injury-create a basic incongruity with the tort system. These differences are not peculiar to toxic waste pollution. They are generally characteristic of long term gambles with the environment-environmental risks. As the first prominent manifestation of an environmental risk, the toxic waste disposal problem can import important lessons on how to handle similar problems in the future. Several administrative programs to compensate suspected victims of toxic waste pollution have been proposed. These programs would simulate tort recovery by eliminating or modifying common law lia- bility rules that currently inhibit tort recovery. The proponents of these programs justify them as attaining the trio of traditional tort goals: compensation, deterrence, and retributive justice. But these programs would achieve only one of the traditional tort objectives: compensation. Attaining the other objectives would be inhibited by existing statutes and would, even in the absence of those statutes, be impeded by the peculiar characteristics of toxic waste disposal and the injuries it causes. Part I of