Applicable Law to Claims of Civil Liability Arising Out of Environmental Damages in European Union Law and Iranian Law

One of the vague aspects of environmental international private law is determining the applicable law to civil liability arising out of environmental damages. Such claims usually are accompanied by damages sustained by persons or property for those reasons. In addition, due to the development of natural resource claims in several countries, in most cases, the existence of, at least, an external connection element is assumed and the sum of these factors, make the determination of applicable law convoluted and unpredictable. In order to resolve this duality, European Union law, for the first time, in Rome II regulation, prescribed a conflict law rule under which, the law applicable to a non-contractual obligation arising out of environmental damage or damage sustained by persons or property for that reason shall be lex loci damni, unless the person seeking compensation for damage chooses to base his or her claim on the law of the country in which the event giving rise to the damage occurred (Article). Iranian law, have no solution to choose the governing law in this category; nevertheless, comparative surveys in legal and economic foundations, counter with Rome II regulation, can reinforce approaches under which the person seeking compensation can choose the national law of every countries in which, merely, one of the connection elements, may be found.