论国际海底区域开发中担保国的环境法律责任

The Environmental Legal Responsibility of Sponsoring State in the International Seabed Area Exploitation Context

在国际海底区域开发中担保国的环境法律责任来源于担保国对确保遵守义务和直接义务的违反,责任的承担标准应为过错责任,严格责任尽管有适用空间,但是存在适用的阻却事由。担保国环境法律责任构成要件的特殊性在于损害后果和因果关系,损害后果应采用重大标准为门槛要件;因果关系表现为初级规则而非次级规则的形式。在责任的承担范围和形式问题上,可获赔偿的环境损害类型主要为针对海洋环境的损害和对构成人类共同继承财产的区域及其资源的损害。海底区域物理属性的特殊性和法律地位的特殊性对恢复原状救济方式的可行性和有效性提出挑战,金钱补偿应成为担保国环境法律责任承担的主要赔偿方式。

The environmental legal responsibility of the sponsoring state arises from the breach of the obligations to ensure and direct obligations of the sponsoring state.The standard of the sponsoring state’s environmental responsibility should apply fault liability principle.Although strict liability has the application possibility,the existing rule system has prevented its deployment.The particularities of constituent elements lie with the damage and the causality.The damages adopt serious harm as the threshold and the causality is specified in the form of primary rules rather than secondary rules.With regard to the scope and form of the responsibility,the compensable environmental damages mainly include the damage to marine environment and damage to the Area and its resources which constitute the common heritage of mankind.However,the particularity of the Area’s physical features and legal status of the Area and its resources pose a challenge to the assessment and determination of environmental damage.The monetary compensation should be the main remedy way of the Sponsoring State in the Area.