Looking at environmental law from the other side : property law and the environment : a comparative case study of Belgian, German and UK packaging law in a property law environment

Abstract

In many theses it has become normal to quote the words of Dante "Voi ch’entrate, lasciate omnia sperenza" on the cover. The authors thereby make clear that the area in which they have worked is extremely complicated and that therefore their responsibility for failure is limited. Writing this text on a Florentine balcony, it would seem appropriate to cite the most famous of Italian writers, but I prefer not to do so. The survey I have attempted to undertake is not meant to be a contribution to the complexity of the theory - although I hope to have succeeded to at least some extent if not I apologise profoundly - but as the exploration of an alternative way of considering environmental law. The aim is to contribute to the understanding, efficiency and/or effectiveness of environmental law. This does not mean that possible readers - few that they may be - should stop thinking because the truth has been discovered. The universal validity of truth being limited and often temporarly, I am the last to say that what is written in this text is the truth. However, it is that of an endeavour, albeit with a limited purpose - that of writing a LLM thesis, on a limited subject -that of packaging - in a limited period of time - one year, or rather a few months - to bring the issues of property law and environmental law together. Or to be more precise, to bring my sometimes confused, sometimes pertinent ideas on these subjects closer to the reality of what others think and write. Attentive readers will discover places where I have been carried away by my own "idées fixes", and others where I have let my ideas be overgrown by thick layers of scholasticism, although in all modesty 1 think the former will be more prevalent than the latter The ideas expressed in this dissertation do not claim validity, they can only claim honesty. However wrong they might be, they have been written in good faith. In conclusion, I believe that it is possible to come to a set of general and usable principles of environmental law. To me, it certainly seems to be true that a European codification of property law is possible. I also believe that property law - not the only alternative available - offers possibilities for either containing these general principles, or for helping to clarify them. To finish, one small warning : an overview of existing packaging and property law might well seem to be a bit boring. Before condemning me, remember that the author's efforts to understand both areas, had to be given some place in the text…