Compensation for Injury to Publicly Owned Marine Resources : Legal and Economic Aspects

해양 공공자연자원 피해보상의 법.경제적 평가

Interest on ocean environment has increased with the development of industrialized activities. Public marine resorces are defined broadly to include fish stocks, beaches, marine waters, recreational fishing, biota, waterfowls, shorebirds, seabirds and marine mammals But, it is not easy to analyze compensation for injury to publicly owned marine resources because the claimants do not exist clearly and the economic methodology of damage on public goods is not developed fully. This paper introduces basic idea of welfare economic theory and environmental legislation to the research question : How the economics and law can be applied to the case of damage on publicly owned marine resource. The paper discusses the concepts of willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA). It is accepted generally that WTA is correct concept of welfare change in the case of damaged public goods. Four methods (compensating variation, equivalent variation, compensating surplus, equivalent surplus of measuring welfare changes are compared. Compensating variation(CV) is the best measure of welfare changes are compared. Compensating variation(CV) is the best measure of welfare changes caused by environmental damage. Vartia (1983) showed CV could be measured from the ordinary demand function using the differential equations. This paper also provides an overview of the emerging U.S. and Korea legal system for compensation for natural resource damages, with particular emphasis on U.S. legal system under Comprehensive Environmen-tal Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). These regulations are to include two different types of standardized procedures for assessing natural resources injury : Type A or simplified assessment techniques for small releases ; and Type B protocols that would include detailed and extensive assessment methodologies for major releases. Type A procedures are specified by Natural Resources Damage Assessment Model for Coastal and Marine Environment (NRDAM/CME) of the U.S. CERCLA provides a legal 'legitimization for the use of economic-based nonmarket valuation in the courts and have introduced appropriate and accurate nonmarket valuation methods based on willingness to-pay for damage assessment. By briefly reviewing economic theory and environmental legislation, we hope to help provide a better understanding of the compensation process and the economics of publicly owned marine resources in the U.S. and to integrate the economics and law of natural resources valuation into a single comprehensive package in Korea.