Law and Environment. Prevention, Control, Responsibility

The future of our planet depends primarily on technological and technical security in the IT and AI sectors. Awareness of the transition from cultural life (parallel civilisations, Life 2.0) to technological life (global civilisation, Life 3.0) is still negligible. Those who have struck out to be aware of the present are necessarily alone in their views. The state of collective unconsciousness results in a lack of appropriate response to all kinds of dangers that threaten humanity. Today, the idea of ‘Sustainable Development’ is in the spotlight. Sustainable development is shaping environmental consciousness with a significant impact on ethics, politics and law. At the core of this noble idea is the ‘Golden Rule’, which for centuries has committed to a balance between ethical values (humanity and justice) and praxeological values (efficiency as a synthesis of lawfulness and rationality) in the context of technology, governance and law. What seems urgent today is, taking the above into account, the need to create a system of effective international control. The power of the law also depends on the responsibility incumbent on the individual or collective. In environmental protection, preventive liability is leading the way, permeating the international responsibility of states and civil, criminal and administrative, tortfeasors’ liability. The low level of legal culture means that it is still not appreciated in the practice of international, regional and national relations. In the real world, what counts above all is compensation liability, the effectiveness of which is ensured by insurance and public compensation funds. They ensure that risks are spread across a wide variety of actors and that the game is played in many arenas. The objective of the chapter is to present the idea of the evolution of the civilisation in the context of the rules of law, technology and their impact on environment and human future in that context. It begins with the dawn of the civilisation, goes through the first industrial revolution, the second scientific and technological revolution and finally reaches the analysis of the third—information revolution.