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ENVIRONMENTAL
LIABILITY DEVELOPMENTAL GROUP
MEETING
AT 1.00PM ON TUESDAY 5 JUNE 2001 AT SIMMONS AND
SIMMONS, 1 ROPEMAKER STREET, LONDON EC2
Note:
These are the views of the group, and not necessarily of the full
Commission
Present:
Matthew Freeman
John Gilliland
Malcolm Grant
Derek Langslow
Justine Thornton (convenor)
Anne Packer (Secretary).
Issues
on liability
1. Members identified a range of issues requiring discussion. These
include:
(a)
How an insurance market might develop; including what risks are insurable
and at what cost;
(b)
The extent to which GMs are different from other environmentally damaging
activities; including whether there should be a liability regime for
GMs but not for other agriculture; the need for a level playing field;
(c)
Legal redress for unforeseeable events, with possible examples from
pesticide regimes eg DDT;
(d)
Whether liability can provide a suitable response for diffuse pollution;
(e)
Different legal responses: prosecution/ civil liability;
(f)
Whether farmers should be liable if they complied with permits, whether
they should accept a responsibility for risky activities or whether
responsibility should be shared across the board;
(g)
A possible role for a compensation/ research / communication fund;
(h)
How to resolve the impasse between organic and conventional farming;
this could be an issue for a group considering 'harm', while the liability
group might consider whether use of the planning system is appropriate;
(i) Possible
roles of different legal mechanisms - considering implications of
each, such as zoning:
·
Regulation
· Limited liability
· Enhanced liability
· Planning
· Grandfathering rights
Work
programme
2. Members agreed that major work by an AEBC liability group could
not start until after the report on strategic decision making and
the FSEs was completed. The group's work would need to relate to AEBC
work on geneflow, bioremediation and harm. The group would propose
at the next AEBC meeting that liability becomes a full sub-group study,
with membership widened a little. Action: Malcolm Grant/ secretariat
for Birmingham agenda.
3. Main
stages for the work programme for the group would be:
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(a)
Background briefing: including an ERM study of the economics of
liability, and possibly briefing from eg an insurer and a legal
philosopher. Action: Malcolm Grant to consider who might provide
background briefing talks, secretariat to arrange meeting. This
should be after the next AEBC meeting, with provisional dates set
for 21 or 22 August. That meeting would schedule a series of further
meetings for the months ahead.
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(b) Scoping the enquiry with clear limits for the boundaries of
the enquiry, including a process and procedure for consultation;
considering animals as well as plants;
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(c)
Taking evidence: discussions including EC, industry and NGOs.
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(d) Setting out issues (linking to discussions on harm) and formulating
principles: the implications of current and possible alternative
regimes; considering interim arrangements; comparing issues for
other regimes eg pesticide regimes. Action: Malcolm Grant to discuss
pesticide issues with ACP Chair.
AEBC
secretariat
June 2001
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