• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.125-151
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• 2018

Rapid industrial growth based on massive fossil fuel energy consumption has caused serious damages on natural environment and every aspects of human life. As demands for clean and pleasant living circumstance increases, conflicts and disputes around environmental problems have also been widespread. Given the 'environmental rights' is a relatively new legal concept, however, resolving environmental disputes through the traditional legal principles and litigation procedures could be restrictive and, in some sense. inefficient as well as expensive. With efforts to develop new legal principles on environmental disputes, the environmental dispute adjustment system has been introduced as an alternative dispute resolution to the traditional legal dispute procedures. The Korean Environmental Dispute Resolution Commission introduced as the environmental dispute adjustment system has been well established for the past twenty-seven years, given the steadily increasing numbers of applications to the Commission over environmental disputes. However, as most cases are still small in money terms and mainly subject to adjudication, the effectiveness and practical contribution of the Commission in the resolution of environmental disputes have in fact been limited. For the enhancement of the status and roles of the Commission as the prior instrument of the alternative dispute resolution(ADR) in environmental disputes, several suggestions could be considered as follows: First, mediation needs to be more activated than adjudication in order to meet the primary purpose of ADR that resolves environmental disputes according to free will of concerned parties. Second, the scope of mediation could be expanded to the areas including potential environmental damages. Third, the roles and responsibilities of the Environmental Dispute Resolution Commissions at both central and local levels need to be evenly distributed. Fourth, the mechanism and procedures of environmental dispute resolution should be standardized. Fifth, the status of the Environmental Dispute Resolution Commission could be elevated in rank by shifting its current affiliation from the Ministry of Environment to the Office of Prime Minister. Sixth, the organizational structure and human resources of the Commission need to be reinforced. Seventh, the current situation that tends to give priority to litigation procedures when an environment dispute is simultaneously pending in litigation and mediation should be eased and properly adjusted. Eighth, the adoption of mandatory mediation in advance to litigation needs to be discussed. Ninth, the legal authority of the Commission's decisions should be further guaranteed. If above suggestions are thoroughly reviewed and properly adopted, the roles, authority and power of the Environmental Dispute Resolution Commission would be increased in the era when environmental conflicts get widespread, requiring an effective alternative environmental dispute resolution mechanism.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.163-196
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• 2005

In modern society, there is given rise to a lots of environmental controversies. This disputes bring about the social problems. The reason that this kinds of dispute is frequently brought in our society is that our society is democratized and a nation asserts his rights strongly. And also the reason is that there is not enough the legal system which is able to settle such a dispute amicably. Thus this thesis deals with the arbitration systems as the way to solve the dispute of environmental problems. This paper is composed as follows. 1. Introduction 2. The cause of trouble still exists in our society related to environmental controversy 3. A general settlement procedure of environmental disputes 4. Administrative grievance mediation 5. Environmental disputes and arbitration systems 6. Conclusion

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.258-262
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• 2007

Recently people have come to demand more pleasant environments as the quality and right of life have been improved. Along with industrial development, the tendency is causing a growing number of disputes concerning environmental damages. Of many kind of environmental damages, noise and vibration pollution rising at construction fields are particularly the most common subjects of public grievance. Thus the government launched the Environments Dispute Mediation Committee in 1991, purposing to utilize fully the promptness and expertise of administrative institutes and to resolve environmental damage disputes promptly and fairly by interfering in them actively. With the prompt and fair dispute mediations of the committee, people came to be able to get fair and prompt remedies for damages in their health and fortune by environmental pollution. Therefore, by analyzing dispute mediation cases on construction noise and vibration damages, we will suggests basic material on which efficient actions can be takes for public grievances happening in the future.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.89-114
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• 2011

Environmental disputes not only possess the special characteristics of collectivity and plural value relativity but it also possesses the unique features of difficulty to prove cause and effect as well as the structural maldistribution of evidence and information. Therefore, the positive resolution of an environmental dispute can be brought about more easily with the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) which can take the form of talks, compromises, as well as arbitration or mediation rather than through a trial process. Such being the case, this paper first looks into the problems and effectiveness of the arbitration system of environmental lawsuits and then takes an even closer look at Korea's environmental dispute arbitration system and finally offer some reform methods. In Korea, the environmental dispute arbitration system was implemented in 1991 and has been executed since then. Although this system does have positive features such as the high rate of coming to an agreement between the involved parties but unfortunately, most of the cases rely on decisions based on right and wrong which cannot but be far away from the intentions of the ADR system. It is heavily centered around claims regarding psychological compensation regarding noise and vibrations and the ratio of the actual amount of compensation is comparatively lower than the requested amount. In addition, with the limits in organization and manpower, it leads to a lack of professionalism as well as the problem of low usage with the low awareness rate. As reform measures against the aforementioned problems, this paper suggests the following. First, in order to activate the arbitration process more fully, it proposes aggressive usage of compulsory arbitration as well as submission to arbitration, while at the same time raising ADR professionals to fill in the missing gaps. Secondly, in order to overcome the problem of concentration of related cases, making representative lawsuits of environmental organizations would be a good idea. It also states that in order to make the compensation amount more realistic, it should go out of the across-the-board decision making process and reach a decision about the compensation amount that takes the individual situation's dispute into consideration. In order to boost the professionalism of the environmental dispute arbitration, it is necessary to reform the organization and manpower such as expanding the number of members of full standing, and increasing the professionalism of the examiners. Also, to increase the usage rate of the ADR system, the paper suggests stationing a civilian consultant regarding environment, or activating the compulsory arbitration which is the premise for public participation on the part of the residents.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.108-113
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• 2001

Recently people have come to demand more pleasant environments as the quality and right of life have been improved. Along with industrial development, the tendency is causing a growing number of disputes concerning environmental damages. Of many kinds of environmental damages, noise and vibration pollution rising at construction fields are particularly the most common subjects of public grievance. Thus the government launched the Environmental Dispute Mediation Committee in 1991, purposing to utilize fully the promptness and expertise of administrative institutes and to resolve environmental damage disputes promptly and fairly by interfering in them actively. With the prompt and fair dispute mediations of the committee, people came to be able to get fair and prompt remedies for damages in their health and fortune by environmental pollution. Therefore, by analyzing dispute mediation cases on construction noise and vibration damages, we will suggest basic material on which efficient actions can be taken for public grievances happening in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.525-541
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• 2012

This study aims to investigate the possibility of Investor-State Dispute under Korea US FTA in relation to Korean environmental impact assessment scheme. The study analyzes the Investor-State Dispute case between Bilcon of Delaware and the government of Canada. The case study shows that Bilcon challenged Canada with violations of NAFTA 1102, 1103 and 1105, arguing that Canada treated Bilcon in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner. The study analyzes two different scenarios that Korea could face with arbitration for alleged breach of its obligations under the Korea US FTA in relation to EIA scheme. From analyzing the case study in relation to two different scenarios, the study finds that problems previously identified and associated with EIA scheme in Korea could directly or indirectly cause Investor-State Dispute Settlement process between Korea and American investors. The study concludes that the risk of violating Korea US FTA related with Korean EIA could be reduced by creating Korean EIA scheme in a transparent and unarbitrary manner which guarantees fair public participation and elaborating the concrete meaning of sustainable development in EIA law.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.876-878
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• 2008

The standards of acceptable limit and compensation is one of the most important things in environmental noise and vibration disputes resolution. In this paper, review on the present acceptable limit level and compensation standard in National Environmental Dispute Resolution Commission is introduced. Discordance of standards between in the regulation law and in the dispute resolution commission and it's improvement are discussed. Abnormal reasoning for compensation standards is pointed out from a author's private view.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.693-701
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• 2023

In this study, we analyzed 82 dust damage dispute mediation cases over the past 5 years and evaluated cases where the probability of damage was verified through dust concentration measurement, modeling prediction, and chemical composition analysis. The cause of dust damage was a construction site, which accounted for most of the damage (97%), and was closely related to the distance from the construction site, total floor area of the construction site, and construction duration. Compensation was decided in only 33% of dust damage cases, and in only 6% (five cases) were damages determined using scientific techniques such as dust measurement, and forecasting. The main criteria for determining compensation were whether administrative measures were taken and evidence of damage in the form of videos and photos. In the future, measuring or model for the amount of dust damage is necessary to determine whether the limit has been exceeded and to revise the standard for calculating compensation through various lines of evidence of dust damage.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.57-87
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• 2009

Sick House Syndrome(SHS) is the environmental health problem which is difficult to clarify a causal relationship and a responsibility. This paper is focused on a National Environmental Dispute Resolution Commission(NEDRC)'s judgment on SHS and the process of the change of knowledge and policies related to SHS. In the process of the resolving the SHS dispute, NEDRC functioned as a boundary organization, which helps stabilize the boundary between science and policy, and provides space of mutual collaboration and produces boundary objects. NEDRC had necessary characteristics and resources to make scientific knowledge and policies of SHS. First, it was important for SHS to define a problem clearly and to justify the related information whereupon legal authority was effective. In addition, for the procedure of deciding polities, the role of the Ministry of Environment(ME) was essential. However, due to the condition of ME, the discussion of SHS had been limited to the scope of dispute, excluding scientific discussion.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.381-391
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• 2008

The instances of the damage to livestock are increasing with frequent environmental disputes on the noise and vibration. This study analyzed 134 open cases dealing with the environmental disputes on livestock damaged by noise and vibration, and being intervened by National Environmental Dispute Resolution Commission. The environmental disputes on the noise and vibration account for 86% of all the disputes, and cases of the consequent damages to livestock have increased. As shown in the 134 cases, pig is the most lethal livestock attacked by the noise and vibration. During last 10 years, 89% of the noise damages hurting the livestock resulted from the noises pertaining to construction and 58% was due to the noise damages from the road constructions. The noise levels in the range of 70~80 dB(A) and the vibration levels of 70~75 dB(V) caused most of the disputes. The average rate of reimbursement for the livestock damages for the last 10 years was higher than the average rate of reimbursement of the total disputes intervened by National Dispute Resolution Commission.