The implementation of the Environmental Liability Directive in Spain

The EC's Environmental Liability Directive (hereinafter, 'ELD') was transposed in Spain by means of a legal rule in October 2007. Rather than amending the existing legislation, Spain opted for a comprehensive piece of new legislation in the form of a separate act to transpose the directive. The act constitutes a fair transposition of the European directive and establishes a general framework for the determination of environmental harm and the ways to redress it. However, the act has not repealed existing legislation establishing liability and remediation obligations for environmental damage. The most important features of the new scheme are described in this article, and the matter of how to reconcile the new rule with the existing regime is addressed.