Two Centuries of French State Management of the Industrial Pollution

Abstract

This paper is the result of a round table held in Granada in 2012. The conference aimed to provide a general view of the French State's approach to industrial pollution between 1770 and 1970. In this paper, Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud analyzes the meaning acquired by the legal reform of the traditional ways of regulating industrial harm after the French Revolution. This state’s reform aimed to protect industrial property —and not public health—, following the French Revolution's discourse and Napoleonic policies. The paper also considers the ensuing evolution to the environmental awareness by certain heterogeneous civil society groups. This period was affected by an important shift that restructured the protection of environment and public health.