Stratospheric Ozone Damage and Legal Liability : Us Public Policy and Tort Litigation to Protect the Ozone Layer

While government enforcement of laws and regulations to control the production of chloroflurocarbons in 1987 has been hailed as exemplifying the precautionary principle, for almost two decades US companies failed to take precautionary measures to prevent chemical emissions, despite the probable risk of stratospheric ozone loss. As a result, human harms in the form of skin cancer have reached epidemic proportions globally and in the United States where, today, one person dies every hour from skin cancer. This book reviews U.S. laws, regulations, and policies, as well as case law regarding similar toxic tort cases to consider whether companies can and should be held legally liable under tort common law theories and related tort justice theories for having contributed to increased risks of skin cancer.

Lisa Elges is a leading climate and environmental governance policy analyst. As Head of Climate Policy at Transparency International, she has authored numerous articles on the integrity of climate and carbon finance. She holds an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex, UK, and Doctorate in Political Science at the Freie Universität, Germany. She has three children and lives and works in Brussels and Berlin.