Legal compliance - the bottom line
All businesses are obliged to work within a framework of Acts and Regulations and environmental issues are no exception. Much environmental law has its origins in public health regulations that appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century. Some laws are sector and process specific, only applying to certain types of industrial process, and then only if they exceed set thresholds.
Environmental laws or statutes
A statute is a written law passed by the approved legislative process of the State, i.e. voted on in Parliament. Statutes supersede all other forms of law. Another separate strand of law is common law This arises from decisions made in court by judges and is not part of the political process. Statute law can override the common law since it is enacted by the sovereign power and is, therefore, superior to custom and judicial decision.
Acts of Parliament are referred to by their short title and the calendar year in which they were passed, e.g. Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Criminal law regulates the conduct between the State and man. The burden of proof in criminal cases is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ and the outcome is punitive, e.g. custody, community sentence, fine, etc.. With few exceptions, criminal law is statute law.
Some environmental laws are introduced following scientific discoveries, e.g. an international ban on the use of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) came into force (the Montreal Protocol) following the confirmation of a link between the release of CFCs and depletion of the ozone layer.
In other cases, the science behind suspected environmental damage is not conclusively proven, but because the potential consequences are so great, precautions are legally enforced, e.g. climate change and the burning of fossil fuels in the Kyoto protocol.
Occasionally a specific trigger event is significant enough to lead to a new environmental law. For example, the Seveso explosion led to the Control of Major Accident Hazard (COMAH) Regulations 1999.
Common law
The common law was originally based on the merging of various local customs and decisions made by judges when deciding court cases. It is unwritten since it depends upon a judge’s interpretation of customs and society’s expectations. Common law is, therefore, not part of the parliamentary system, it is a body of law based on judges’ decisions in court. A civil wrong is known as a ‘tort’ in England and Wales.
Certain requirements must be fulfilled before a custom can become a particular source of law:
- It must be reasonable, i.e. it must conform to the general view of right and reason prevailing in the community. The courts are not at liberty to override a custom because it falls short of their own ideal of right and justice.
- It should not be in conflict with statute law. No custom can take away the force of an Act of Parliament.
- It must be generally followed and observed as of right by the members of a community.