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The environment is at risk not only from disastrous accidents, but also from the insidious contamination by lesser incidents and from events whose significance is unacknowledged or even unrecognised at the time. Major incidents attract instant public concern and demands for clean up and prevention. Historical and gradual contamination do not often make headlines but may have effects which equally require curative and preventive action. The costs of curative and preventive actions may reach considerable dimensions. These costs have to be provided by parties responsible for or related to the damage. Predominantly it is the role of the civil law to give redress to those who may have suffered as a result of environmental damage. The development of civil liability for environmental pollution has been traditionally marked by the recognition of different liability regimes. However, none of these approaches is in itself sufficient to address the problems of environmental protection; nor do they yet amount into toto to a composite system. Therefore, efforts have been made to increase the effectiveness of each approach. The regulatory system is in the process of reform both in the European Union and in the Member states, through tightening of the standards backed by criminal and civil laws and by improving and monitoring and enforcement of these standards. However, even the establishment of a no-fault regime cannot guarantee the accurate attribution of environmental responsibility, the exhaustive remediation of environmental damage and the compensation of every loss caused by environmental pollution. This thesis will reveal that civil liability is not effective in securing restoration of the damaged environment and compensation of the injured persons. Furthermore, it will give consideration to other conceptions (compensation schemes and compulsory insurance), which try to ensure that environmental restoration and compensation take place.

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This thesis explores the phenomenon of Taiwanese Buddhists' environmental concerns as they occurred in the 1990s. A socio-cultural perspective is adopted to enquire into the following questions: (1) what does 'Huan-Bao' (Jl-1*-, literally environmental protection) mean to Taiwanese Buddhists? (2) are there patterns of Buddhist environmental concerns? (3) how do Taiwanese Buddhists construct their environmental concerns? (4) what is their relationship with Taiwan's environmental movements? and (5) have their environmental concerns any relevance to the development of Buddhism in Taiwan? The field work was carried out from Jan. 1996 to Aug. 1997 by employing several different qualitative methods. Three Buddhist-centred organizations' 'Huan-Baos' were researched from both institutional and individual levels. These organizations are: TzuChi Charity Foundation, Dharma Drum Mountain, and Life Conservationist Association. An integrated framework of discourse analysis was developed through reviewing Maarten Hajer, David Harvey, Klaus Eder, and Kay Milton's works. Based on their works, this framework emphasizes the power of discourse coalitions, the dynamics of social process, the globalization of environmental particularisms, and the formation of individual and institutional identities. In summary, the study finds that: (1) Taiwanese Buddhist 'Huan-Bao' discourses are constructed through Buddhist Masters' re-interpretations and lay Buddhists' social practices, namely: Tzu-Chi's 'Cherishing Fu (tit, literally good fortune)'~ DDM's 'Pureland on Earth'~ and LCA's 'Life Respecting'. Though hardly challenging the 'ecological modernity' theme that is dominant in Taiwan's environmental movements, these discourses, nevertheless, demonstrate a special spiritual dimension that was rarely found before. (2) The social practices of lay Buddhists play an important role in defining and redefining what 'Huan-Bao' means to them. This social process not only enriches and reshapes the institutional definitions of 'Huan-Bao' but also helps to create individual identities. More importantly, it allows practitioners to 'dwell securely' in Taiwan where a rapid social change and insecurity are often experienced. In this way, this trend of Buddhist Huan-Bao discourse has become well situated in the phase of 'place making' of Taiwan's environmental movements. (3) The distinctive interpretation of'Huan-Bao' by each Buddhist organization suggests a unique social process behind each organization's evolution of 'Huan-Bao' discourse. These multiple meanings of 'Huan-Bao' and associated social processes manifest a new developmental stage of Taiwanese Buddhism characterized by rationalization, secularization, and contextualization. (4) This study establishes a bridge for dialogue with the search for an eastern religious environmental ethic that has for a long time been romanticized and stereotyped in western environmental movements. The study not only illustrates how the dynamics of social change cannot be separated from Buddhists' heightened environmental awareness, but also challenges the over-simplified assumptions that western environmentalists make about the environmental beliefs of' eastern religions'.

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