Statute of Limitation in Environment-Related Harm and Injuries: Time for Reform?

Abstract

Many of the effects of environmental pollution take years to manifest and this constitutes a problem when the statutes of limitation have to be applied in such situations. The current statutes of limitation, especially in Nigeria and to some extent, in other jurisdictions, are capable of working substantial injustice on victims of environment-related harm and injury. This is attributable to the problem of computation of limitation periods and short time limits imposed by the statutes vis-à-vis the long latency period of environmental harm. Consequently, actions of such victims can easily be rendered statute-barred. This paper examines statutes of limitations in other jurisdictions and reveal the presence of provisions that can obviate the complexities in the application of statutes of limitation to environmental claims. The paper concludes that adopting a combination of factors gleaned from other jurisdictions will give the claimants in environmental actions a fair and equitable opportunity to institute actions without being caught up by the limitation period. It reveals the need for reforming some aspects of Limitation Laws, both in Nigeria and in other jurisdictions. Given the long latency period of environment-related harm and injury, the paper proposes the introduction into statutes of limitation, the grant of discretionary powers to courts to extend limitation periods and the exemption of environmental claims that are difficult to discover because of latent injuries.