Harm in Environmental Damages Comparative Study in Jurisprudence, Iranian and French Law and International Instruments

Three elements are needed to form civil responsibility: harm or injury, injured party, and connection between defendant and injury. The injury element is talked about in law and jurisprudence as “harm”. Present paper comparatively studies harm and its basis in environmental damages. The essential point is, damages occur when loss or waste of another’s property happens, therefore proving liability depends on proving that natural resources are considered property so that damaging them would constitute harm. Therefore discussing whether natural resources are property and consequently discussing their ownership is the first stage of discussion about liability regarding environmental damages. Accordingly, it is necessary to explore different kinds of harms, and then using general reasons and legal and jurisprudential information in national and international law, the question of natural resources being property could be debated. Among reasons to be cited are fatwas by Islamic jurisprudents in some Islamic rules which could prove natural resources to be property and then prove their ownership for public, using them, damaging these resources could result in liability.