The EU Environmental Liability Directive: A Commentary

The 2004 Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) created a legal regime for the restoration of environmental damage that was novel to all EU Member States. This is the first book to provide a comprehensive commentary on legal issues arising under the ELD as well as guidance on interpreting and applying the ELD.

Lucas Bergkamp is a partner in the Brussels office of the international law firm of Hunton & Williams. Bergkamp, who is both a medical doctor and a lawyer, heads Hunton & Williams' European regulatory practice. A leading European law firm in the regulatory area, Hunton & Williams' Brussels office has a strong environmental law and liability practice, including soil and groundwater contamination, water pollution, and damage to protected habitats and species caused by accidents, spills, and normal operation. Bergkamp has been involved with the EU's Environmental Liability Directive since its inception and has commented extensively on the Commission's proposals. He writes and speaks frequently about a wide range of environmental liability issues, and is the author of Liability and Environment (2001). Until 2007 he was a Professor of Environmental Liability Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and currently teaches in the Energy and Environmental Law program of the Catholic University of Leuven.

Barbara J. Goldsmith, who holds a graduate degree from Harvard University, is a specialist with over 25 years' experience in national and international environmental policy and corporate environmental management, particularly the interface between environmental regulatory requirements and industrial planning and development, and the effects of environmental policies on industrial operations and productivity. She is a leading authority on worldwide policies and practices related to natural resource damages liability and assessment.

The founder and President of Barbara J. Goldsmith & Company, an environmental management consulting practice with offices in both Washington, DC and Brussels, she established, in 1988, the Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group (formerly the Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Damage Group). She has served as its Executive Director since inception. The program then expanded to a highly successful European counterpart focusing on the transposition and application of the EU Environmental Liability Directive in 2004 and today includes worldwide issues related to natural resource liabilities.