SAMFUNN: Preventing environmental effects of products through producer responsibility

This project studies producers' and importers' responsibility for hazardous environmental effects of products during use and as waste. The project will look into various aspects of producers and importers responsibility to prevent negative environmental effects of products, such as duty to know their products characteristics and possible environmental effects, duty to inform about this, and not least obligations in relation to the disposal of the product as waste, including 'take back- obligations'. The Project aims to study the general responsibilities of producers and importers in Norwegian and international law, independently or in addition to the special rules for certain groups of products. The project aims to describe, clarify and analyze national and international rules in this regard, and the interface between them. It also intends to identify problems and weaknesses in the legal regime as a basis for improvements. The topic raises transnational legal issues and illustrates the globalization of law. The project will link national research to the important research activities in the field of international environmental and trade law.

Virkninger og effekter som prosjektet har hatt er først og fremst en bevisstgjøring innen akademia og i norsk samfunnsliv av betydning når det gjelder sirkulær økonomi som regulatorisk idé.

The project will look into various aspects of producers and importers responsibility to prevent negative environmental effects of products, such as duty to know their products characteristics and possible environmental effects, duty to inform about this, and not least obligations in relation to the disposal of the product as waste, including 'take back- obligations'. It will study the general responsibilities of producers and importers in Norwegian and international law, independently or in addition to th e special rules for certain groups of products. The method will first be a description of the national and relevant international law based on the usual legal sources: the texts, court practice, the application of the law, and legal theory. Although the focus of the project will be Norwegian law, it will have important international elements since many global and EU rules both directly define and limit Norwegian law. In the analytical part, Norwegian law will be analyzed against the international rules, and compared to similar rules in other countries. Comparative studies may be particularly useful in order to assess the quality and effectiveness of Norway's law, and identify possible weaknesses. The project will run for 4 years. The main element of the project will be a PhD thesis on one or a few selected topics within the broad field of producer responsibility. Topics related to the transnational problems and relations between national law and international law, will have a priority. Within this, oblig ations to assess, know and provide information about the effects of products seem particularly relevant. Other issues will be taken up in more limited studies carried out by the members of the research group. The issue is highly international and the proj ect will link up with the international research in the field, through regular and close cooperation with the four international partners and other experts, and active participation in international events.