Loss Aversion in Companies Whose Location Is Affected by Fire

In Portugal, fires have originated a big debate not only because of the environmental damages they cause but also because of the material damages they provoke to families and companies. This way, it is important to understand how these events impact companies' cash holdings, not because of the direct damages caused by them, but because of managers' loss aversion. The empirical evidence, mainly documented by Dessaint and Matray and Kahneman and Tversky, were the main sources to this empirical study, where the authors have chosen to work with panel data analysis using a sample of 38,574 small and medium enterprises during the period from 2009 to 2015. About the obtained results, there is evidence that cash holdings increase when managers of a company located in a region close to a fire, but not directly damaged by it, perceive a salient event of a future fire. In other words, when they anticipate the occurrence of an identical event, cash holdings are increased to protect the company against it.

Muarareja Fishermen Perceptions on The Prohibition of Arad and Environmentally Friendly Fishing Tool Assistance Programs

Arad has been prohibited because of its damages to the environment. However, fishers in Muarareja continue to operate the gear even though environmentally friendly fishing gear (traps) have been granted as a substitution. The reason behind the rejection of substitute fishing gear is interesting to be investigated. Therefore, the study aim to 1) analyze fishers' perceptions of arad prohibition, traps, and environmentally friendly fishing gear program; 2) evaluate fishers' perception on policies concerning arad prohibition and fishing gear substitution; and 3) formulate the recommendations. This study involved 35 arad fishers in Muarareja Village who has been granted with traps as substitute fishing gear. Variables in this study are fishers' perceptions on arad and trap, the policy of arad prohibition, and fishers' perception on the environmentally friendly fishing gear program. Data were collected through interviews and questionnaires. Data were analyzed by scoring respondents' answers based on provided statements. The results showed that fishers did not agree that arad is not environmentally friendly, while the trap is. Fishers are also against arad prohibition and refuse to use traps as a replacement. Furthermore, fishers who received traps are still very dependent on arad and use traps only for alternative fishing gear. Recommendations for the policy of arad prohibition are arad should be allowed with special regulation, and further education is required for fishers to understand the correlation between unselective fishing gear and environmental damages. Recommendations for the environmentally friendly fishing gear program are that the provision of traps should be continued with several adjustments following fishermen's preferences.Keywords: Prohibition of arad, environmentally-friendly fishing gear, traps.

Methodology for the economic estimation of the environmental damages caused by land, soil and air pollution in Kenya: a review of previously used methods

Environmental compensation is a form of payment for pollution of nature and the environment and the destruction of land, plants or animals. One of the challenges in ensuring waste management in Kenya is how to measure the negative effect of industrial activities and waste on the environment, economy, and human health. Although the amount of compensation should be established on the basis of the environmental-economic assessment of the appropriate environment, it should also be sufficient to implement measures aimed at restoring, reproducing and improving this environment. Kenya has not yet developed a clear legal framework for compensation for environmental damage even through it has a clear and elaborate Environmental Management and Coordination Act for the protection of the environment. Previous studies on the cost of environmental damage in Kenya have successfully used two methodologies: emergency costs and soil, air, and water pollution. This works examines the essence of these methods, as well as the possibility of their application in assessing the cost of damage to the environment as a result of human economic activity.

QUANTITATIVE RISK ASSESSMENT FOR COLLISIONS INVOLVING DOUBLE HULL OIL TANKERS

In recent decades, the safety of ships at sea has become a major concern of the global maritime industries. Ships are rarely subject to severe accidents during their life cycle. Collision is one of the most hazardous accidents, with potentially serious consequences such as the loss of human life, structural damage and environmental damage, especially if large tankers, LNG and/or nuclear-powered vessels are involved. This study presents a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) for double hull oil tankers that have collided with different types of ships. The methodology used to perform the QRA is based on the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) definition of a Formal Safety Assessment (FSA). Using probabilistic approaches, ship-ship collision scenarios are randomly selected to create a representative sample of all possible scenarios. The collision frequency is then calculated for each scenario. As this is a virtual experiment, the LS-DYNA nonlinear finite element method (NLFEM) is used to predict the structural consequences of each scenario selected. In addition, the environmental consequences are estimated by calculating the size of each scenario’s oil spill. To assess the economic consequences, the property and environmental damages are calculated in terms of monetary units. The total risk is then calculated as the sum of the resultant structural and environmental damages. Exceedance curves are established that can be used to define the collision design loads in association with various design criteria.

COMPENSATION FOR ENVIRONMENT

The right to a healthy environment is one of the rights of peoples and present and ‎future generations, especially in light of modern technological developments that ‎have contributed greatly to the rate of environmental pollution, which has ‎multiplied environmental damage, and to confront these environmental damages, ‎there were many efforts at the international and internal levels.‎ ‎In keeping with comparative legislation, the legislator introduced the first law ‎for the protection of the environment under Law 10/03 relating to the protection ‎of the environment within the framework of sustainable development, which is ‎characterized by its preventive and deterrent nature, but it did not provide for ‎civil penalties related to compensation for environmental damage, which means ‎the implementation of the traditional rules recognized in the field of Civil liability ‎that is no longer appropriate given the specificity of environmental damage‎‎‎. Keywords: EEnvironmental Damage, Environment, Environmental Responsibility, ‎Compensation, Environmental Pollution, Implementation, Sustainable ‎Development

Environmental torts and civil punishment

This article presents, in its first part, a general expositive overview regarding responsibility for environmental damages on US law, outlining its key guidelines, as well as a brief parallel regarding its differences with Brazilian law. In the second part, the main aspects of punitive damages on US law are discussed, including a description of the circumstances under which states in the U.S. permit punitive damages. In both parts of the text the main jurisprudential cases that concern the topics discussed and that support the legal grounds of the responsibilities that fall upon the defendant are indicated. The approach taken is inductive, according to US common law.

A note on organizational structure and environmental liability

This paper employs a multi-task principal-agent model to examine how a corporation’s organizational structure and liability rules for environmental damages affect the incentive schemes offered to managers. We derive environmental liability rules for risk averse managers under two alternative organizational structures: a product-based organization (PBO) and functional-based organization (FBO). For a PBO, it is shown that efficiency is independent of whether the firm or managers are liable for environmental damages; in a FBO it is optimal either to hold the firm liable for environmental damages or, equivalently, to only hold the environmental managers liable for damages. It is also shown that the two organizational structures are equally efficient when there is no correlation between environmental damages from products and no spillover between managerial effort across products or functions. Numerical results further reveal that beneficial spillovers between functions for the same product favours a PBO over a FBO; beneficial spillovers across functions favours a FBO.

Acque reflue e rischio ambientale: inquinamento fluviale nella Roma imperiale

The paper intends to examine a specific area of research concerning the pollution of large rivers – the Tiber above all but not exclusively – and the resulting contamination of water and air as well as the depletion of fish fauna and related food risks. The data on the damage to fluvial (but also lake and marine) habitats are not presented by the intellectuals of the Flavian-Trajan and Antonine ages (Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Galen) in an ‘environmentalist’ perspective stricto sensu, but each time presented in terms of moral condemnation, or of political propaganda aimed at seeking consensus or even in terms of risk to health and/or possible economic damage. In spite of this, from a legal point of view, appears undeniable a concern of the State to introduce measures aimed at limiting environmental damages as well as protecting and conserving natural resources, although certainly not systematic, but dictated by completely pragmatic needs and by occasional or emergency circumstances.

The Enforcement of Environmental Damages Judgement as a Basis for Piercing the Corporate Veil within a Corporate Group

The present article, on the basis of the high-profile Chevron case, rethinks the principle of corporate veil within a corporate group. It tries to convince the reader that a plaintiff holding an environmental damages judgement should be able to enforce it against any company in the corporate group of defendant regardless of the fact that such company was not a defendant in the underlying action (the new test). To attain this goal, firstly, the basic notions as an “environmental damages judgement,” a “corporate group,” and “the corporate veil” are explained. The article then elaborates on the importance of the corporate veil principle. Furthermore, it describes what would currently constitute a potential ground for piercing of the corporate veil in Canada. Later on, it provides a three-level justification for why the veil, in the described circumstances, should be pierced. Finally, the new test regarding piercing the corporate veil is proposed.