Reforming the Law Applicable to the Award of Restoration Damages as a Remedy for Environmental Torts

摘要

The author argues that traditional doctrines allowing the award of restoration damages in limited circumstances should be reformed to permit the broader application of such awards. Cox begins with a review of a number of policy rationales that support such an evolution of the law and then goes on to discuss the various doctrines applicable to restoration-damage awards. Cox concludes that courts involved in the adjudication of environmental tort claims should consider the expansion of existing equitable trust doctrines that would remove the fear of unjust enrichment of environmental plaintiffs, thus permitting more liberal restoration-damage doctrines to emerge.