Study On Legal Issues Concerning Environmental Liability Insurance Modes

Environmental liability insurance is a policy-oriented economic instrument.Correspondingly,environmental liability insurance should take the welfare of a society as a foothold to balance the interests of all parties as well as fully exert its role of market mechanism.Different from policy insurances and social insurances,environmental liability insurance,as commercial liability insurance,is a risk distribution and cost-sharing mechanism per se,and constitutes one of the multiple relief approaches together with infringement damage compensation.Environmental liability insurance works on the basis of environmental torts and the identification of tortious liability.Therefore,with regard to the relief of victims’ environmental rights and interests,tort law provides a legal basis while environmental liability insurance ensures the implementation of indemnity.The two modes of envirornmental liability insurance correspond with the rationale of environmental liability insurance.The voluntary mode base on autonomy of will and freedom of contract theories underscores the reimbursement to the insured’s loss,while the compulsory mode,on the basis of externality theory,pays more attention to the indemnity of the victims.These two modes have different characteristics and merits,the application of which needs to take such factors as current states of pilot,legal environment and insurance market into comprehensive considerations,and takes reference from useful external experiences to promote the interactive development of theoretical research and practical experience.Moreover,insurance mode is only one aspect of environmental liability insurance system,the choice and application of which shall on the one hand base on the whole system,and on the other hand facilitate its development together with other supporting measures.This article has three sections.Starting by introducing the concept,features,rationale and functional orientation of environmental liability insurance,the first section distinguishes the concepts of type and mode in environmental liability insurance,and divides insurance mode into two categories based on the validity of insurance policies,namely compulsory mode and voluntary mode.The last part of this section focuses on the main factors that influence the choice of insurance modes.The second section compares the two insurance modes,analyzes the advantages of each,and gives a brief introduction and analysis of environmental liability insurance in several other countries.As to the environmental liability insurance in our country,section three states the current situation,including the problems behind and possible reasons,and makes suggestions for the choice of insurance mode and other supporting measures when environmental liability insurance is put into nationwide implementation.