Research On The Development Of Environmental Criminal Law In The European Union And Its Criminal Policy Analysis

As a result of escalating environmental pollution and the diversification of polluting agents, protecting the environment through the penal mechanism has gained mutual recognition among the European Union (EU) Member States' legislatures. Since the 1990s, the EU has increasingly strengthened its environmental regulatory functions through legislating on environmental criminal law matters; employing case law and expansive interpretation of Treaty statutes has enriched Community competence. This paper firstly defines EU environmental criminal law, followed by an outline of its key legal sources and development, thus analyzing the legal basis of EU environmental criminal legislation, and the significant role of case law for establishing its competence. The fourth chapter compares and examines EU environmental criminal law with instances of Member States' national law legislation, demonstrating the coherent direction and integrated progression of EU environmental criminal law. In addition, abstracting from EU and Member States' environmental criminal law legislative models exemplifies the EU legislature's innovation and breakthrough from traditional boundaries on this matter. Furthermore, this article seeks to evaluate the implication of EU environmental criminal law legislation for criminal policy.