COMMON LAW IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Common Law Contribution to the Protection of Environment in England & Wales

Common Law Contribution to the Protection of Environment in England & Wales

Introduction

In today's highly globalized environment, environmental pollution is a way of life. Everyone hears about how greenhouse gas, climate change, and air pollution is changing the world. Environmentalist groups had never been at their most vigilant as they try to minimize or at least control the hazards presented by commerce. These non-profit organizations are able to do this through campaigning, promotions, and by trying to push legislation. Without a doubt, enacting new laws form the centerpiece of environmental protection. Individuals (people and corporations) need to abide government regulations to avoid punishment and do business. New legislations about taxes, tariff, and legal procedures will also affect the way they do business and subsequently, how goods and manufactured and distributed (Jacobs, 2001, p57).

Environmental laws encompass a vast variety of legislation that is concerned, one way or another, to environmental damage in the UK. Some laws are very specific because it relates to a single issue (such as the Mobile Home Act 1983) but there are also some laws that are more wide-ranging. In recent years, a lot of older specific laws have been consolidated into few environmental acts. Some examples include the Environmental Protection Act 2000 and the Environmental Act 1995. These laws had replaced previous environmental legislations.

Over the past several decades, there had been greater public awareness about the importance of environmental protection. In fact, environmental concerns are more popular in the UK and the European Union compared to most other countries (Lee, 2005, p122). This research paper will look into how international laws on environmental issues are formed, how it affects UK legislations, and what its impact on the environment is.

Discussion

The environment by almost every measure has long been a relatively minor issue on the British policy agenda, driven more by the concerns of successive governments to appease vested interests (notably industry, farmers and landowners) than by a desire to develop a rational and integrated response to environmental management. While post-war British political debates have focused on issues such as unemployment, health care, welfare, education and foreign policy, they have touched only rarely on the environment.

Ever cautious and pragmatic, recent British governments have been slow to recognize the environment as a distinct policy area, unwilling to provide environmental agencies with adequate power or funding, and reluctant to support international attempts to control pollution without absolute certainty of the links between cause and effect. Because Britain is a small, crowded, post-industrial society, its most pressing environmental concerns revolve around managing the relationship among its people, industry, and what remains of nature in a country with one of the highest population densities in Europe (about 640 people per square mile). The most important policy debates have long tended to focus on two key areas: land-use planning and pollution control.

Post-war policy on the first of these was driven by the Town and Country ...