Are there similarities between the tobacco industry and the fossil fuel industry when it comes to legal liability? Could, for example, energy companies that rely on fossil fuels and emit greenhouse gases be held accountable for the damage caused by climate change? Two researchers in the Faculty of Law have set out to answer these important questions.
Are there similarities between the tobacco industry and the fossil fuel industry when it comes to legal liability? Could, for example, energy companies that rely on fossil fuels and emit greenhouse gases be held accountable for the damage caused by climate change? Two researchers in the Faculty of Law have set out to answer these important questions.
Professors Sharon Mascher and Martin Olszynski, along with co-author Meinhard Doelle of the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, have written the paper, From Smokes to Smokestacks: Lessons from Tobacco for the Future of Climate Change Liability, which will be published in the Georgetown Environmental Law Review. The research builds on a growing collection of work in the literature on the responsibility of corporations, and particularly what are sometimes referred to as the carbon majors, for a share of the costs associated with climate change.
Mascher, Olszynski and Doelle began by exploring the unique story of tobacco litigation and liability, and specifically the decision by several U.S. states (followed shortly thereafter by most Canadian provinces) to sue the tobacco industry directly for the public health-care costs of tobacco-related disease. In stark contrast to previous waves of tobacco litigation by private individuals, which were almost universally unsuccessful, in the U.S. this decision led to a $350-million settlement.
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