Environmental Crimes

Initially, this paper will define state-corporate crime as developed by Richard Quinney followed later by a brief discussion of the contributions of Ronald Kramer and Raymond Michalowski. This paper will attempt to use the state-corporate crime framework as an indicator for the deeper understanding of the relationship between organized capital and state institution in modern capitalist democracies. The paper will examine the way states produce and assist by any means the production of corporate crime, and more specifically when committed by financial institutions, which ultimately result in social harm. In this regard, two relevant cases will be demonstrated and further analysed; the Pak Mun Dam project in Thailand and the sinking of the Senegalese Le Joola ship. The impact of globalization, the goals and consequences of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) implemented to stabilize financial economies in developing states, will be vital elements in proving that state-corporate crime should be treated as a crime of globalization and not be underestimated for the harmful effects it can have on states and their economies.

In recent years, environmental crime has emerged as a rising sector of organized criminality and as one of the major challenges to the enforcement of environmental law. The methods adopted by single countries to fight it differ significantly, but typically lacks effectiveness and appropriateness at all levels. At international level, debate over the adequate response to this issue has been ongoing during the last decades.
This dissertation offers an overview of the problem, with a detailed analysis of the features of environmental crimes hampering their detection and prosecution. Afterwards, the European legislation on the topic has been analyzed, with particular reference to Directive 20008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law. In parallel, also the European policy to fight transnational organized crime has been addressed. The second chapter focuses on illegal traffic of waste, with an analysis of European and international legislation on the topic and an in-depth study of e-waste disposal.
My research was primarily based on articles and publications, from which I drew my own conclusions. In addition, I got in touch with some European commissioners to have more detailed information on the Directives I studied and to ask their opinion on some of the subjects. Furthermore, I spoke with other experts in the field of environmental crime to discuss my ideas and have some suggestions.
In my conclusions, I observed that current policies on environmental crimes are affected by various shortages, both for the inadequateness of the legislation and for its implementation and enforcement. I advanced some proposals to remedy to these weaknesses, ranging from the need to strengthen the enforcement of existing rules, to revising the legislation into force and prompt the harmonization of the penalties imposed to violators, to the hypothesis of a new international treaty on waste management and of a tailored policy for the fight to environmental crime.

Este estudo examina o tema da cooperação internacional para a preservação do meio ambiente na Lei dos Crimes Ambientais (Lei 9.605/1998) e propõe o seu entendimento à luz das regras do Direito Internacional Público, especialmente sob a ótica da Convenção de Aarhus de 1998 sobre acesso à informação, participação do público no processo de tomada de decisão e acesso à justiça em matéria ambiental. O ensaio conclui que a Convenção de Aarhus, conquanto ainda não ratificada pelo Brasil, deve servir de paradigma à legislação doméstica no que tange ao dever de cooperar internacionalmente para fins de preservação do meio ambiente.

El Índice de Impunidad Ambiental (igi-Ambiental) presenta una propuesta metodológica que, retomando ideas desarrolladas en el Índice Global de Impunidad (igi), propone una medición comparativa sobre las acciones, capacidades y funcionamiento de las políticas ambientales en el ámbito nacional entre las entidades federativas de México, a partir de cuatro dimensiones: capacidad institucional (estructural), degradación ambiental (funcional), crimen ambiental (funcional) y estrategia intergeneracional (estructural).

From 3 to 7 July 2017 the University of Salerno (Italy) will host the "Jean Monnet Summer School on International and European Environmental Law", organised by the Jean Monnet Chair in European Health, Environmental and Food Safety Law (HEALTHY) - co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union - and the "Observatory on Human Rights: Bioethics, Health, Environment" (ODUBSA), in collaboration with the European Law Students' Association - ELSA Salerno.

The Summer School will be held at the Department of Legal Sciences (School of Law) under the direction of prof. Stefania Negri and the organisational support of ELSA Salerno. The course is also sponsored by the School of Law of Queen Mary University of London (UK), the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales et Communautaires (University of Aix- Marseille, France), the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Europeos "Salvador de Madariaga" (University of La Coruna, Spain).

Special focus of the Jean Monnet Summer School will be: " Health and the Environment".
This intensive and specialistic course will in fact focus on the current challenges facing the international community with regard to the protection of the environment and public health. Core environmental and health-related issues will be addressed through an in-depth analysis of existing international legal instruments, EU law and policies and the relevant case law, combining legal theory with practical application and case studies.

REGISTRATION OPEN UNTIL 31 MAY 2017

INFO: snegri@unisa.it, odubsa@unisa.it

La posesión de animales de manera ilegal es sancionada por las
leyes mexicanas e internacionales y juega un papel fundamental en el tema de estudio del Crimen Organizado en el estado de Tamaulipas, México; en este sentido el presente trabajo aborda la temática de la posesión y decomiso de animales al crimen organizado representado por el narcotráfico en el estado de Tamaulipas en el periodo 2007-2017, para cumplir con el objetivo de estudio se revisaron los casos atendidos por la Procuraduría General de la República en el norte del estado donde se encontró que la posesión de animales por parte de individuos que pertenecen a estos grupos criminales, se manifiesta como una
proyección del empoderamiento social, sobre la naturaleza y de las mismos mecanismos de control social formal, y que a su vez reinciden en conductas delictivas de otra índole. Representado por un total de 12 decomisos judicializados y 66 ejemplares asegurados entre los que destacan, leones africanos, osos, jaguares, ónices, antílopes, berrendos, venados cola blanca, entre otros; el año 2011 tuvo el 59% de los decomisos dentro del periodo de estudio, el municipio de Gustavo Díaz Ordaz tuvo el mayor número de decomisos con 7 operativos donde
se recuperaron 58 ejemplares (67%) seguido por los municipios de Miguel Alemán (8%), Reynosa (8%), Tampico (8%)y Altamira (9%) con 4 operativos y 9 ejemplares asegurados. Por lo que se concluye que la posesión de animales de manera ilegal permite entender los códigos de conducta de los grupos criminales en el estado.

Il contributo ricostruisce preliminarmente le principali questioni problematiche emerse in dottrina e giurisprudenza rispetto al tema della responsabilità da reato degli enti collettivi in relazione agli illeciti penali ambientali. Nella seconda parte del lavoro, poi, l’indagine si sofferma sulle metodologie di costruzione dei modelli organizzativi di gestione e controllo del rischio di commissione di reati ambientali nell’interesse o a vantaggio della corporation, anche avuto riguardo all’emergente rilievo in tale ambito delle nuove tecnologie.
Nella parte conclusiva dell’articolo, infine, si svolgono alcune riflessioni de iure condendo, rilevando rischi da evitare e benefici di una politica criminale in grado di valorizzare contemporaneamente, nel settore analizzato, la prospettiva della positivizzazione delle cautele e quella della premialità degli enti virtuosi.

RESUMEN: Partiendo de la estrecha relación entre deforestación y cambio climático, este trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar el marco sancionador derivado de la implementación normativa en los Estados miembros de la UE del artículo 19 del Reglamento (UE) n° 995/2010 del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, de 20 de octubre de 2010, por el que se establecen las obligaciones de los agentes que comercializan madera y productos de la madera (EUTR). El objetivo es determinar en qué medida los Estados miembros han optado por el Derecho penal como estrategia sancionadora en este ámbito. Tras una breve introducción sobre los antecedentes del EUTR y el marco sancionador previsto en su artículo 19, se exponen en primer lugar los resultados del estudio sobre la implementación normativa del EUTR en los 28 Estados miembros de la UE y Noruega, indicando la naturaleza y la gravedad de las sanciones previstas en sus legislaciones nacionales. A continuación, se aborda específicamente la implementación normativa del artículo 19 del EUTR en España. En la medida que, como se verá, España ha optado por las sanciones administrativas en la aplicación del EUTR, se apunta brevemente qué otros mecanismos existen para la persecución penal del tráfico ilegal de madera y sus productos derivados.

Website of the Jean Monnet Chair in European Health, Environmental and Food Safety Law (HEALTHY), co-funded by the Erasmus+Programme of the European Union. Chair-holder: prof. Stefania Negri, University of Salerno.
The website also includes e-HEALTHY, an e-learning platform providing free access to downloadable teaching and reading materials on selected topics of European health, environmental and food safety law (registration required).

This study used the descriptive research method to determine the level of compliance, implementation, enforcement, and problems encountered in the implementation and enforcement of Republic Act No. 9003 in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon (CALABARZON). Purposive sampling technique was used to identify the 148 respondents from City Environment and Natural  Resources Office/Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO/MENRO) and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in CALABARZON. The frequency, percentage, and mean were used to treat the data gathered. The study revealed that the Local Government Units (LGUs) fully comply to R.A. No. 9003 as they create a Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB) at provincial, city/municipal, and barangay; prepare; and submit a 10-year Solid Waste Management Plan (SMWP). The LGUs implement and enforce R.A. No. 9003 in CALABARZON. Uncooperative residents and strict
implementation and enforcement of R.A. No. 9003 by LGUs are the serious problems encountered in the implementation and enforcement of R.A. No. 9003.

This review has been commissioned by the Scottish Sentencing Council to summarise existing academic, legal and statistical work on the sentencing of environmental and wildlife offences. It will inform, support and form a part of the Council’s preparatory work for developing sentencing guidelines for use by the Scottish criminal courts in the disposition of environmental and wildlife offences.

Opposition to the democratic rule of law, control of the territory and capitalist accumulation are some of the most important characteristics of the mafia organizations that have developed in southern Italy. From there, already at the end of the 19th century, where they exercise intimidation, violence and cultural conditioning, they have then expanded their activities in the rest of the country and, unfortunately, all over the world, where they have added to their traditional criminal activities also those against the environment. In the regions of historical mafia settlement, these crimes, together with the anti-ecological behaviour not directly connected to the criminal organizations, bring out a real "mafia landscape" and an anti-model of development, thus determining further fragility, marginality and economic and social exclusion. In the South, however, there are also the most advanced examples of social and productive reuse of assets confiscated from the mafias in the name of the ecological paradigm and integral development. These regenerate the territories, biologically reconvert the countryside and involve disadvantaged communities and individuals according to the dictates of cooperatives and solidarity, thus contributing to the formation of an "anti-mafia landscape". Starting from these significant contradictions, we intend to treat social and territorial fragility and resilience from a dichotomous perspective. The aim is to trace the dialectical relationship of "coexistence" and "conflict" between eco-mafias and cooperative management of the assets confiscated from the mafia; between mafia capitalism and the integral model of ecological development with particular reference to the "Libera Terra" project as case studies of specific interest.

Nowadays, the first effects of the climate change reflected in droughts or floods that produce the movement of thousands of people of a country to another country or from a continent to another continent in addition to the increase of the crimes committed by the criminal organisations such as trafficking in human beings are considering.
There are so many International Conventions and European laws that try to reduce the effects of the climatic change, being the Agreement of Paris of 2015 one of the most recent, but the current economic inequalities between developed countries and developing countries are just the same as usual.
In this sense, it is necessary to remember that the main environmental damages have their origin in legal commercial and/or industrial activities as well as the most serious environmental damages are not illegal. In order to fulfil the main aim of this paper, it would be necessary to analyse the proper European and Spanish environmental criminal policy addressed to corporate firms that has as objective the prevention and reduction of environmental crimes.
In this paper, Spanish Criminal Environmental Policy targeting the corporate firms will be analysed. Firstly, a brief review about European regulations in regard to environmental crimes will be considered taking into account Directives 2008/99/EC and 2009/123/EC.
Subsequently, articles 325 and 328 of Spanish Criminal law that, among others, transpose these two Directives will be appraised to see whether the Spanish transposition of the regulations has been successful. More specifically, articles 31 bis and subsequent of Criminal Law are also addressed, which regulate the two ways of generate corporate criminal liability as well as establish which are the requirements of the compliance programme to exonerate the enterprises from any kind of criminal liability.
Furthermore, other Spanish laws such as Royal Legislative Decree 1/2016 approving Consolidated Text of Integrated Pollution and Prevention Control (IPPC) and the Environmental Responsibility Act 26/2007, regulating integrated environmental authorisation and tort liability, will be discussed. In addition, the Spanish Code of Criminal Procedure enterprises fundamental rights will be considered in cases of environmental crimes.
Thirdly, some comments about judiciary cases in which enterprises criminal liability are recognised in Spain will be discussed by connecting them with the difficulties that have been considered, for example, the problems related to enterprises guilty and the obstacles found by the environmental NGOS in these trials.
To sum up, some considerations about possible solutions of the previously raised issues about enterprises environmental criminal liability will be made.