Perspectivas de responsabilidad por daños ambientales en Colombia

Abstract

Although environmental damage from its two spheres, individual and collective, has aroused considerable interest in doctrine in Colombia in recent decades, it is a discipline that in our country has not yet been addressed with sufficient rigor and depth that deserves. The reason is the identical approach to the associated problems, as well as the omission of the advances given in comparative law, where the conception of the role that legal institutions should have goes further, towards a comprehensive understanding of the damage from the functional alteration of ecosystems, of which both individuals and nature are part. Indeed, today there is a certain consensus from comparative law, regarding the duty of the liability regime applicable to this modern and comprehensive notion of environmental damage. A regime capable of dealing not only with the components of the natural environment, but with all those that comprise it, from the ozone layer affected by greenhouse gas emissions, or a landscape deteriorated by visual pollution, to seeds genetically modified and even animals that have been appropriated by humans. From the Specialization and Research Line in Environmental Law of the Universidad del Rosario, this collective book was promoted with no other intention than to contribute to the study of environmental damage, a doctrinal construction proposal in the direction of the trend described above. The contributions gathered here come from ten authors, including those of their academic editors, all of them architects of a meritorious effort of systematization, transmission of knowledge and experience.