Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

11-2019

Abstract

Singapore is a land-scarce, densely populated, urbanized and technology-driven society. Despite her image as a clean and green environment, serious challenges remain to keep environmental pollution at bay. Both private and public laws, whether based on statutes or common law, as well as a host of regulations and community norms collectively regulate environmental pollution in Singapore. Statutory provisions targeting environmental pollution rely on criminal punishment, administrative measures and also compensatory damages awarded to victims in the event of breaches of specified statutory duties. The Environmental Pollution Control Act 1999, together with the implementing subsidiary legislation, seeks to minimise or mitigate the effects of air, water and noise pollution. Government agencies adopt preventive, monitoring and/or enforcement measures backed by a plethora of statutes, regulations, international standards relating to environmental pollution. More recently, the enforcement of environmental pollution measures have extended, with the enactment of the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014, to combatting environmental pollution arising from the region. Further, the common law torts of nuisance, negligence and the rule in Rylands v Fletcher exist at common law to compensate the victims for the loss suffered arising from activities resulting in environmental pollution. The goals of enhancing environmental consciousness through public education and community efforts have also been emphasised in Singapore. Nevertheless, community mediation efforts have been supplemented by the establishment of Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals to deal with complaints by neighbours of smoke, smells, and littering in the vicinity of the complainants’ place of residence.

Keywords

pollution control, Singapore, torts, statutes, community norms

Discipline

Asian Studies | Environmental Law

Research Areas

Private Law

Publication

Vietnamese Journal of Legal Sciences

Volume

1

Issue

1

First Page

77

Last Page

88

ISSN

2719-3004

Identifier

10.2478/vjls-2020-0005

Publisher

Sciendo

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.2478/vjls-2020-0005

Download

Share

COinS