LIABILITY FOR ECOLOGICAL DAMAGES: TWO CASES COLOMBIA - EUROPEAN UNION

The objective of the work has been to examine the state of the issue of liability for ecological damage, and how it has been addressed in a developing country like Colombia, whose economy demands excessive levels of exploitation of natural resources. As it is not possible to find a liability regime in Colombian legislation, sectoral legislation and jurisprudence have contributed in a limited way to the treatment of said liability. Hence, it is useful to review the process of formation of liability for environmental damage that occurred in European Community law. At the core of the matter, it is about articulating the environmental management system to responsibility for ecological damage as an instrument through which the application of the prevention principle of the damages that may be caused as a consequence of industrial or productive activities, warning that this idea may entail a certain contradiction with the application of the polluter pays principle, whose spirit is less than preventable, converts the compensation that must be paid for the ecological or environmental damage caused into a fee. The idea of ​​​​the study of comparative law allows us to raise some criticisms and point out elements that, without the intention of direct transposition in Latin American legal systems, can and should be debated in a legal forum like the one I am attending today, since at stake is the existence of the ecosystems and natural wealth of countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, etc.

Summary. 1. Responsibility for ecological damage of transnational companies. 2. Liability for ecological damage: retrospective to Colombian legislation (advance or stagnation?) 3. Liability for environmental damage in European community law. 4. Deficiencies in the civil liability regime for environmental damage in community law. 5. Summary and conclusions….