Environment Crimes

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Environmental Law

Concern for the environment law is not new, scientists in the 1800s were the first to argue that humanity should care for the environment and natural resources out of self-interest and preservation. In 1874 George Perkins Marsh published The Earth as Modified by Human Action: Man and Nature and introduced the idea that human activity can inflict permanent damage on the environment. Marsh and other early environmental thinkers provided some of the ground work for the political efforts to protect the natural resources and ecosystems. Political pressure and support also came from the growing ranks of the wealthy gentry, middle-class tourists, physicians, and others who valued the perceived therapeutic properties of spending time in pristine wilderness.

There are generally two streams of environmental laws: national and international. National environmental laws include environmental legislations, among others, that are enforced in the boundaries of a nation state. International environmental laws include such legal instruments as conventions and protocols, which are binding on nation states, and less powerful instruments of law such as guidelines or codes of conducts, agreements, resolutions, guidelines and declarations. Since 1985, over 200 MEAs have entered into force and over 1000 other regional or bilateral agreements have been negotiated between different countries and regional blocks.

There are many different types of international environmental conventions but generally fall into four major categories.

• Regional Conventions: these are regional in scope (i.e. European Community) and include instruments such as Regional Seas Conventions, which cover specific oceanic regions and associated countries.
• Global Conventions: These are typically referred to as the MECs. They concern and invite the participation of all countries. The conventions such as the Basel Convention on Hazardous Wastes, The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Wetlands, and the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), are all Multilateral Environmental Conventions.
• Issue specific Conventions: examples of such conventions include the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna or the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Rhine Against Pollution by Chlorides.
• Holistic Conventions: Conventions such as the Biodiversity and Climate Change represent a holistic understanding of environmental problems and address these issues that have multiple ramifications and impact on all sectors of global society

Nation states that are signatories to the international conventions and frameworks are obligated to include the intent of these conventions in their domestic legislation this is discussed later in the chapter. There has been considerable debate over the value of using criminal law to protect the integrity of the environment. Much of this debate has revolved around the issue of whether it is appropriate to apply principles of criminal law to environmental crimes and offences. One argument suggests that there are significant strengths in relying at least in the part on the use of criminal sanctions particularly where acute environmental damage has occurred. The strengths identified by using criminal sanctions against environmental offenders are the general principles of domestic criminal law, in that offences could be clearly defined in conformity with substantive and procedural domestic criminal law and ensure compliance with the principle of legality. Moreover, it has been argued the increased deterrent effect for both individuals who could face imprisonment and corporations and where corporate criminal responsibility is possible increases the effectiveness of environmental laws.

Conversely however, limitations on the use of criminal sanctions include a higher cost factors, the higher burden of proof which needs to be discharged for the successful prosecution of environmental offenders in criminal law, and private individuals including victims would not have the power to initiate or pursue criminal proceedings in some jurisdictions where traditional criminal proceedings against offenders is the sole responsibility of the State.

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