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ENV-3035 - Environmental Law > Chapter 1 - Environmental Law and its Evolution in Canada > Flashcards

Chapter 1 - Environmental Law and its Evolution in Canada Flashcards

1
Q

Define Environmental Law:

A

The body of legislated statute and common law that can be used to protect and improve environmental conditions.

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2
Q

Define Common Law:

A

A system of law based on the English legal tradition, which relies on precedent rather than on codified rules.

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3
Q

Define Jurisdiction:

A

The power to legislate or make a decision.

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4
Q

What is ‘Tort’?

A

Civil wrong other than a breach of contract, for which damages may be sought to compensate for any harm or injury sustained.

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5
Q

Environmental law aims to ___________ and _________ the environment.

A

protect, restore

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6
Q

What are the two types of law at the core of Environmental Law?

A
  1. Environmental Regulatory Law
  2. Environmental Assessment Law
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7
Q

What is the difference between Regulatory and Assessment Law?

A
  • Regulatory: The law governing the discharge of harmful substances into the air and water.
  • Assessment: The law requiring careful attention to environmental considerations in the planning and approval of new undertakings.
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8
Q

What is the ECCC?

A

Environment and Climate Change Canada

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9
Q

What is the ‘Precautionary Approach’?

A

An approach to evaluations and decision making that recognizes uncertainty and favours steps to anticipate and avoid or mitigate that are potentially significant but not fully delineated.

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10
Q

What definition of Sustainable Development does the textbook use?

A

“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

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11
Q

What are the three main understandings in environmental law in the new world?

A
  1. We are permanently dependent on a natural environment.
  2. We will never control nature.
  3. We must find better ways to live in and with the rest of nature.
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12
Q

What two categories can environmental law be classified within?

A
  1. Laws of General Application
  2. Sectoral Laws
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13
Q

What is a key indicator of Phase 1 (Common Law Rights and Early Statutes) of Canadian environmental law?

A

The decade (1960) when legislators began to give serious attention to the environment.

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14
Q

What are some of the initial tools in environmental law?

A
  • Causes of Action
  • Civil Law
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15
Q

Define “Causes of Action”:

A

Legal grounds for a civil lawsuit.

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16
Q

___________ law: The law between citizens, even in a common law jurisdiction.

A

Civil

17
Q

What is a key indicator of Phase 2 (Waste Control and Cleanup Laws) of Canadian environmental law?

A

Governments established regulatory systems to identify waste sources and require permits to control the quantity and quality of substances being discharged.

18
Q

What are Cleanup Laws?

A

Laws designed to minimize discharge of human and industrial waste into the environment.

19
Q

__________________: The ability of air, water, or soil to receive contaminants and cleanse itself without deleterious effects.

A

Assimilative Capacity

20
Q

What is the CEPA?

A

Canadian Environmental Protection Act

21
Q

What is the PCPA?

A

Pest Control Products Act

22
Q

In Phase 4 (Comprehensive approaches to environmental assessment and planning and management regimes) of Canadian environmental law, what are two key tools used?

A
  1. Environmental Assessment
  2. Planning and Management
  3. International Influences
  4. Effective and Efficient Application of the Law
23
Q

Explain Environmental Assessment:

A

The identification and evaluation of actual or potential effects of an undertaking on the environment.

24
Q

What are Planning and Management Regimes?

A

Legislative schemes that govern a sector with the purpose of maximizing the long-term benefits obtainable from the resource while minimizing the detrimental effects.

25
Q

What is considered in an Environmental Assessment?

A
  • Cumulative Effects
  • Combinations of factors (social, natural, etc.)
  • Implications of Uncertainties
  • Effects of strategic undertakings
26
Q

What are the four associated trends in environmental law?

A
  1. Regional Continental and Global Effects
  2. Transparency and Citizen Participation
27
Q

What is the “Dilution Solution”?

A

The idea that air or water pollution do not pose a problem if they are spread out widely enough.

28
Q

What were some of the demands from the public for the government to be more transparent and include greater citizen participation?

A
  • Timely and convenient access to info
  • Opportunities for direct involvement
  • Public access to regulatory requirements
  • Rights to demand action
29
Q

What main factors drive effective and efficient application of the law?

A
  • Ideological predispositions and corporate interests.
  • Concerns about the costs of government programs
  • Doubts about effectiveness
30
Q

Define Voluntary Compliance:

A

An approach that relies on industry and individuals to do the right thing.

31
Q

What are the three big challenges for environmental law?

A
  1. How best to promote steps toward sustainability.
  2. How best to respect complexity and uncertainty
  3. Transformation
32
Q

Define a Complex System:

A

Systems composed of many interdependent components with properties that arise from dynamic internal interactions and engagement with other overlapping and larger systems.

33
Q

The implications for law involve what three interconnected themes?

A
  1. Respecting Uncertainty
  2. Acting with precaution
  3. Embracing complex system behaviour as a practical basis for understanding and action.
34
Q

What is the IPCC?

A

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

35
Q

True or False: Environmental law is highly normative.

A

True, because it encompasses the statutory and common law that can be used to protect the environment .

36
Q

First-stage waste control laws of the _______s led to toxics control laws and eventually to environmental assessment, planning, and management as well as modern laws that incorporate ideas of sustainability and, to a degree, precaution against environmental threats even where the likelihood of harm is not fully known .

A

1970

37
Q

True or False: The four evolutionary phases in the development of environment law are sequential.

A

False, these four phases are not sequential, nor have they taken place at the same time in all jurisdictions .

38
Q

Environmental laws play a key role not only in reducing _______ to nature and human health but also in moving toward sustainability in a world of rich _________ and unavoidable __________ .

A

threats, complexity, uncertainty

ENV-3035 - Environmental Law (13 decks)

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