Law in the complex society and new ways to impute civil liability for environmental damage

Abstract

Society has undergone deep changes in the last decades. We have experienced the post-industrial society which has different and even antagonistic characteristics when compared with the industrial society. This paper shows a systemic perspective of the society: it highlights the juridical subsystem and the Environmental Law which is part of it. Besides, it approaches the crisis in the current imputation model by emphasizing changes proposed in the following aspects of civil liability: damage, occasioner and causal nexus, regarding civil liability for environmental damage. Gunther Teubner’s idea of collective liability is also explained as an alternative to the Kelsenian imputation model.