'Fishing for Answers': An Anglers’ Society Challenges the Scope of ‘Environmental Damage’

This analysis addresses an important case that has recently come before the Administrative Court,1 compelling it to address for the first time important aspects of the scope of ‘environmental damage’. Most particularly, in dismissing an anglers’ society’s application for judicial review, it was held that the definition of ‘damage’ under the Environmental Liability Directive does concern the deterioration of a given environmental situation; however; this definition will not extend to also encompass the prevention of an already damaged environmental situation from recovering to acceptable levels. Nor will it encompass a damaged environmental situation’s deceleration in achieving those acceptable levels.