In search of new risk management strategies using a comparative evaluation of environmental laws for soil contamination in the United States, Germany and Japan

This paper examines the soil contamination laws in the United States, Germany and Japan, because each of these country´s policies have weaknesses that supply discussion for businesses confronted with potential soil contamination liability. It is also the authors´ intention to find potentially valuable new risk management strategies that may be necessary to protect all stakeholders as laws and society´s demands change. Past and current political, economic and social trends was investigated, compared and evaluated to aid in discovering which policy direction a national government might take: command and control, voluntary remediation programs or a combination of the two.