Abstract

• Polluter pays principle (PPP) is a widely accepted and applied concept both in the context of developed and developing countries to address the environmental problems. In the simplest term, the principal means that the polluter should bear the costs of the pollution prevention and control to maintain the environment in an acceptable state. Later, it has been extended to use as an instrument to implement the civil liability regime to compensate the environmental damage. PPP can be implemented through various instruments such as economic instruments, standards-based regulations, or liability rules. Myanmar’s legislation specifically provides the any person who pollute or caused damage to the environment to pay compensation for such damage. However, these provisions apply only to public environment and not cover environmental related private injury or property damage. Since Myanmar practices common law based legal system, private party can recourse to tort litigation to seek remedy for environment related private property damage. This paper critically analyzes the application of PPP through environmental tort litigation in Myanmar based on the available reported case. It is found out that the decisions of the courts do not support application of PPP as proclaimed in the environmental legislation. Moreover, some procedural rules should be amended specifically for the civil suit involving environmental related damage since they do not correspond/reflect to the nature of environmental related injury. The paper also suggests the use of strict liability in cases involving activities inherently dangerous to the environment to enable the effective application of PPP in Myanmar.