Environmental Regulation: Effective or Defective? Assessing whether criminal sanctions provide adequate protection of the environment

Abstract

Issues, such as climate change and global warming, have seen environmental protection grow in the global consciousness into something worthy and in need of regulation. In response, a number of laws have been enacted which make certain environmental actions criminal offences, enforced through the criminal justice system. These environmental crimes are enforced using the same mechanisms and must satisfy the same procedural safeguards as 'traditional' criminal offences in order to secure conviction. This discussion looks at elements of the current system and whether it provides an effective system for protecting the environment. An examination of the alternatives is also made to establish if different enforcement mechanisms would facilitate better environmental regulation.