Developing a Theoretical Framework for Environmental Harm Liability in Nigerian Private Law: Beyond Rylands v Fletcher

The increasing severity and complexity of environmental harms in Nigeria's oil-producing communities, industrial zones, and agricultural regions has exposed fundamental limitations in existing private law liability frameworks, necessitating original theoretical development beyond the Rylands v Fletcher doctrine and its common law derivatives. This study develops an original theoretical framework for environmental harm liability in Nigerian private law, integrating elements of strict liability theory, environmental justice ethics, African communitarian jurisprudence, and comparative environmental law scholarship from Brazil, South Africa, and Canada. Using a pluralist theoretical methodology, the research combines doctrinal analysis of Nigerian environmental tort cases decided between 2010 and 2024 with ethnographic field research in Delta State, Plateau State, and Kano State communities affected by industrial pollution, involving 120 research participants from affected communities, environmental lawyers, and regulatory officials. The study identifies the theoretical gaps created by the requirement of individual plaintiff standing, the difficulty of proving diffuse causation, and the inadequacy of compensatory damages for collective environmental harm. The research advances a theory of communal environmental rights and proposes a Collective Environmental Harm Liability Framework as an original contribution to the field. This theoretical contribution reframes environmental liability from an individual to a collective and prospective basis, with significant implications for Nigerian private and public environmental law. Recommendations include the enactment of an Environmental Liability Act, collective standing rules, and mandatory environmental restoration orders. Keywords: environmental liability, strict liability, Rylands v Fletcher, communal rights, environmental justice