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Reviving Rylands: How the Doctrine Could Be Used to Claim Compensation for Environmental Damages Caused by Fracking
Author(s) -
Costello Róisín Áine
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
review of european, comparative and international environmental law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 2050-0394
pISSN - 2050-0386
DOI - 10.1111/reel.12059
Subject(s) - damages , doctrine , context (archaeology) , liability , political science , law , common law , law and economics , compensation (psychology) , business , sociology , history , psychology , archaeology , psychoanalysis
Contemporary societies are characterized by complex interdependence, with industrial activity increasingly having the potential to cause effects beyond local and national borders. Courts have previously illustrated that liability for injurious action must lie with the individual who created the risk of damage under the common law rule of R ylands v. F letcher . Having fallen out of favour in the twentieth century, this article proposes a re‐articulation of the rule to cover situations in modern society in which invasive methods are used in the extraction of volatile fuels from the earth, specifically in the case of ‘fracking’. The article examines recent rulings from the U nited S tates and the U nited K ingdom, as well as precedent from the U nited K ingdom and I reland to establish the manner in which the rule of Rylands v. Fletcher might be successfully re‐articulated in the context of contemporary common law jurisdictions – specifically focusing on I reland – as a means for redressing environmental damage.