Once Again on Negative Externalities: Between Regulation and Liability

The ideological debate on public government involvement in environmental issue is ever-topical as resource exploitation affects the quality of the natural environment. Considering the two issues involved in the analysis of externalities, social welfare and property rights, we intend in this paper to develop on the problems related to the implications of the two doctrinal approaches in limiting negative externalities, with a special focus on the recent events in the Romanian economy. The most important conclusion of this study is the necessity of increasing the moral responsibility of all stakeholders and of strengthening the rule of law. As Peter Lewin in his paper, Pollution Externalities: Social Cost and Strict Liability, concluded, “if we can avoid making a virtue out of the need to compromise, we may succeed in the future in reducing the need to compromise”.