오염원인자 부담 원칙-그 의의 및 한계를 중심으로

The Polluter Pays Principle has appeared, for the first time, in the documents of OECD in 1972. In that documents, the principle was considered as an economic principle on the cost allocation that government is prohibited from paying the cost of pollution prevention and control to companies in the form of subsidies. Over time, the meaning of the Polluter Pays Principle has expanded as an legal principle that polluter should bear the cost of pollution prevention and clean up, the responsibility for damage resulted from pollution. Currently, the principle has been established as the cost allocation and liability rule caused by environmental pollution in the field of domestic and international environmental laws. Korea also regulates the Polluter Pays Principle in the Environmental Policy Act, article 7 and embodies the principle by the permissible emission charge, quasi-tax etc. in other individual environmental laws. Because The Polluter Pays Principle in the legal area is applied to these various forms, the interpretation of meaning and scope is unclear. These ambiguities lead to a lot of problems in interpretation, especially when the principle is applied to civil liability. In addition, the Polluter Pays Principle emerged on the purpose of amending the defect of market while basically maintaining the free-market economy system. So the question presented is whether the principle contributes to the substantial reduction of environmental pollution. This question led to a new theory that reflects the value of the environment itself and a critique of the principle in the light of the concept of environmental justice. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of the Polluter Pays Principle and to discuss the principle's future development direction by introducing the critical point of view associated with it.