A Study On The Legal Exemption Of Liability For Environmental Tort

The legal exemption of environmental tort liability refers to the justification expressly stimulated by our law to exempt or reduce injuring party’s responsibility in the environmental tort cases. It has common characteristics with the ordinary legal exemption, In addition, compared with the ordinary legal exemption, it is against environmental tort cases and its condition is stricter. This kind of legal exemption is on theoretical basis of the requirement for justice and order, which is a reflection of utilitarianism, and the predictability for the consequences of their own actions. Based on the regulations in our existing environmental laws, the legal exemption of environmental tort should be limited to the force majeure. the victim’s deliberate and serious fault, while the victim’s common fault, reasons from a third person, the justifiable defense and the emergency acts of rescue can not.There are some problems in regulations for the force majeure. For example, the regulations in the Environmental Law are not in conformity with that in the slip laws; the conditions of every regulation are not agreeable; and there are some contradictions in the regulations between new laws and old news. Therefore, it should be improved to fix the regulations in our existing laws about the force majeure, to restrict the conditions for legal exemption strictly and to set up national special fund about the force majeure.There are many problems in the laws concerning the victim fault. The law of environment protection fails to consistently describe the victim’s fault and distinguish the victim’s deliberate and common faults. Thus, it is necessary to add the regulations concerning the victim’s fault and category of the fault in the law of environment protection and the other specific laws.Reasons from the third person should not be included in the exemption of liabilities for environment tort. However, it is not clear whether it should be included, with the laws too confusing and inconsistent. Therefore, it is required to claim that reasons from the third person should not be included in the exemption of liabilities and establish the uniform regulation in the current laws.