Abstract
The future of our planet depends primarily on technological and technical security in the IT and AI sectors. Awareness of the transition from cultural life (parallel civilisations, Life 2.0) to technological life (global civilisation, Life 3.0) is still negligible. Those who have struck out to be aware of the present are necessarily alone in their views. The state of collective unconsciousness results in a lack of appropriate response to all kinds of dangers that threaten humanity. Today, the idea of ‘Sustainable Development’ is in the spotlight. Sustainable development is shaping environmental consciousness with a significant impact on ethics, politics and law. At the core of this noble idea is the ‘Golden Rule’, which for centuries has committed to a balance between ethical values (humanity and justice) and praxeological values (efficiency as a synthesis of lawfulness and rationality) in the context of technology, governance and law. What seems urgent today is, taking the above into account, the need to create a system of effective international control. The power of the law also depends on the responsibility incumbent on the individual or collective. In environmental protection, preventive liability is leading the way, permeating the international responsibility of states and civil, criminal and administrative, tortfeasors’ liability. The low level of legal culture means that it is still not appreciated in the practice of international, regional and national relations. In the real world, what counts above all is compensation liability, the effectiveness of which is ensured by insurance and public compensation funds. They ensure that risks are spread across a wide variety of actors and that the game is played in many arenas. The objective of the chapter is to present the idea of the evolution of the civilisation in the context of the rules of law, technology and their impact on environment and human future in that context. It begins with the dawn of the civilisation, goes through the first industrial revolution, the second scientific and technological revolution and finally reaches the analysis of the third—information revolution.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Jung (2017), pp. 43–58.
- 2.
Tegmark (2019), pp. 37–70.
- 3.
See Pyć (2006), passim.
- 4.
Brodecki (2010), pp. 15–24.
- 5.
See Stelmach and Brożek (2004), passim.
- 6.
See especially Noble (2017), pp. 89–149.
- 7.
See Czapliński and Wyrozumska (1999), pp. 431–525.
- 8.
In my habilitation dissertation Obligation to Remedy Damage of Catastrophic Proportions (Brodecki 1978), I presented, among other things, my own draft legislation on liability for nuclear damage, which was accepted by the Polish Parliament when it passed the ‘Atomic Law’ Act. I have great satisfaction that the Polish legislator was the first in the world to adopt the principle of non-continuation of the statute of limitations for nuclear personal injury, assuming payment from a special compensation fund.
- 9.
Another appendix to my habilitation thesis included a draft on liability for pollution damage in the Baltic Sea area, the purpose of which was to fulfil the obligation under Article 17 of the Helsinki Convention of 1974. This draft, which I drafted on behalf of the Polish authorities, was not on the agenda of the Helsinki Commission. The parties adopting the new version of the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area in 1992 reiterated that the Member States undertake to establish liability rules for pollution damage ‘as soon as possible’. One has to be a captive diplomat to repeat this phrase 15 years later.
- 10.
The text is contained in a work published on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the H. Arctowski Antarctic Station. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Legal and Treaty Department, The Antarctic Treaty. A Selection of Documents from the Introduction, Warsaw, pp. 173–188. I derive my satisfaction from comparing the contents of this Annex with my reflections against the background of the solutions adopted in the CLC/FUND Convention system, which I have commented on, inter alia, in: Llloyd’s (New Definition of Pollution Damage) and in: Yearbook of Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly (Compensation in the Light of the 1984 Protocols to Revise the 1969 CLC and the 1971 Fund Convention), and in my professorial book The Modern Law of Transboundary Harm (Ossolineum, Warsaw 1993).
- 11.
See, inter alia, Nawrot (2007), pp. 75–88.
- 12.
The book Infrastruktura informacyjna nowoczesnego państwa by (Szafrański and Weydeman 2019, passim) has recently been published. In it, the authors made a general characterisation of the information society, pointed to the legal basis of informatisation processes in Poland and the European Union, and presented the tasks, architecture and resources of this infrastructure.
- 13.
The concept of cybersecurity does not refer to the posting of prohibited content online (child pornography, hate speech) or legal information but shared without authorisation (infringements of intellectual property rights), as these matters relate solely to the protection of personal rights.
- 14.
Everything to do with climate change and food security deserves exposure. See, inter alia Adamczak-Retecka and Śniadach (2018), passim.
- 15.
- 16.
See Jaskiewicz-Kamińska (2016), passim.
- 17.
See, inter alia, Bar (2020), pp. 29–44.
- 18.
See, inter alia, Wałachowska (n.d.), pp. 57–68.
- 19.
See, inter alia, Filipkowski (n.d.), pp. 113–128.
- 20.
Dorota Maśniak writes about this in her excellent monograph Ecological Insurance (Zakamycze 2003), breaking down the barriers to thinking about environmental protection (pp. 15–88), while showing the role of civil liability insurance in environmental protection, i.e. the ‘polluter pays’ principle (pp. 89–216) and the role of material insurance in environmental protection, i.e. the ‘victim pays’ principle (pp. 217–264).
- 21.
The forerunner of ‘space insurance’ is Katarzyna Malinowska, who, in her habilitation thesis Space Insurance: International Legal Aspects (Malinowska 2017), created new contractual templates based on specific contracts concluded by well-known companies such as Lloyd’s.
- 22.
- 23.
In 2021 in Libya, a Turkish drone equipped with artificial intelligence attacked enemy troops without a human decision, a UN special report revealed.
- 24.
Interesting books on the future of criminal law and the philosophy of punishment have been published by K. Mamak. His Filozofia karania na nowo (Mamak 2021) is worthy of insightful study.
- 25.
This is currently the subject of debate in the US in response to Russia shooting down its own satellite and posing a threat to the international space station.
- 26.
Roger Scruton—a British philosopher, writer and commentator on contemporary events, and at the same time author of the well-known book Green Philosophy—How to Think Seriously About the Planet Scruton (2017), passim.
- 27.
See Brodecki (2021), passim. This booklet is the proverbial ‘dot over the i’ in my academic work, which I began in earnest with my studies in maritime and space law at University College London under the tutelage of Professor Czeng, and finished with a series of essays under the title ‘Sea & Space’, published, among others, in the series ‘Per Mare ad Astra’, published by the Polish Academy of Sciences.
References
Adamczak-Retecka M, Śniadach O (2018) Climate change and food security. The legal aspects with special focus on the European Union. Wydawnictwo University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk
Bar G (2020) Robot personhood, or why we need anthropocentric artificial intelligence. In: Lai L, Świerczyński M (eds) The law of artificial intelligence. C.H. Beck Publishers, Warsaw
Bostrom N (2016) Superintelligence. Scenarios, strategies, dangers (original title: superintelligence. Path dangers, strategies), translated by Dorota Konowrocka-Sawa. Helion S.A., Gliwice
Brodecki Z (1978) Obligation to remedy damage of catastrophic proportions. Wydawnictwo University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk
Brodecki Z (2010) Metodologia regulae iuris. In: Komparatystyka kultur prawnych. Wolters Kluwer, Warsaw
Brodecki Z (2021) Temple in the cosmic village, security of future generations in the era of artificial intelligence. EuroPra-law, Warsaw
Czapliński W, Wyrozumska A (1999) Prawo międzynarodowe publiczne, Zagadnienia systemowe. C.H.Beck, Warsaw
Filipkowski W (n.d.) Criminal law vis-à-vis artificial intelligence (In:) Law..
Jaskiewicz-Kamińska J (2016) Right to safe critical infrastructure. Europrawo, Warsaw
Jung CG (2017) Breakthrough of civilisation (original title: Zivilisation im Übergang), translated by R. Reszke. KR Publishing House, Auckland
Kaku M (2018) The future of humanity. Conquering Mars, interstellar travel, immortality and our destiny beyond earth. (original title: The Future of Humanity. Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality and our destiny beyond Earth), translated by B. Bieniok and E.L. Łokas. Prószyński i S-ka, Warsaw
Malinowska K (2017) Space insurance: international legal aspects. Wolters Kluwer International B.V, Netherlands
Mamak K (2021) Filozofia karania na nowo. Krakowski Instytut Prawa Karnego, Krakow
Maśniak D (2003) Ecological insurance. Zakamycze, Kraków
Nawrot AM (2007) Knowledge society 9. In: Temple in cyberculture. Technology and law in a knowledge society. University of Gdańsk Publishing House, Gdańsk
Noble DF (2017) The religion of technology. The divinity of man and the Spirit of invention, translated by Krzysztof Kornas. Copernicus Center Press, Krakow
Pyć D (2006) Law of sustainable development. Wydawnictwo University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk
Scruton R (2017) Green philosophy: how to think seriously about the planet, translated by J. Grzegorczyk, R. P. Wierzchosławski. ZYSK i S-ka, Poznań
Stelmach J, Brożek B (2004) Legal methods, Krakow
Szafrański B, Weydeman R (2019) Infrastruktura informacyjna nowoczesnego państwa. Military Academy of Technology, Warsaw
Tegmark M (2019) Life 3.0: being human in the age of artificial intelligence translated by T. Krzysztoń. Prószyński i S-ka, Warsaw
Wałachowska M (n.d.) Artificial intelligence and the principles of civil liability (in:) Law...
Widłak T (1978) Autonomous road pirate (in:) fascinating paths of the philosophy of law 2, ed. University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk
Zajadło J, Zeidler K (2021) Wolters Kluwer, Warsaw
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brodecki, Z. (2024). Law and Environment. Prevention, Control, Responsibility. In: Malinowska, K., Maśniak, D. (eds) Managing Environmental Risks through Insurance. AIDA Europe Research Series on Insurance Law and Regulation, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47602-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47602-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-47601-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-47602-0
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)