Study Of Environmental Pollution Crimes

The rapid development in industry contributes a lot in raising the people's living standards, however, it brings about serious environmental pollution at the same time. Currently, China, on one hand, has to keep the high speed of economic growth, and on the other hand, should protect its fragile environment. Thus, it is of great practical significance to research on crime of polluting the environment. The present studies treat the environmental crimes as a whole, but not an independent problem. Therefore, researches on crime of polluting the environment are not thorough enough in some aspects, hence arouses many controversies. Through analyzing and comparing these researches, and taking the achievements both home and abroad for reference, in the thesis, a probable way is provided to solve the relevant problems of crime of polluting the environment.The thesis is composed of 4 sections, over 31,000 words:Section Ⅰ: The concept of crime of polluting the environment and its status in criminal law are briefly introduced in this section, as well as its legislative evolution. The so-called crime of polluting the environment refers to the conduct that the doer discharges substances or energy which exceed the criteria applied to the environment, in quantity, density, or intensity, and severely damages the environment, even impairs the growth and development of people and other species. In China, historically, crime of polluting the environment has been neglected for various reasons. The accusation to punish the conducts of polluting the environment has come into being till recent ten years.Section Ⅱ: In this section, the value orientation of criminal law in punishing the crime of polluting the environment is emphatically probed into. The author first analyzes the controversy between human-centered doctrine and nature selfish departmentalism, then points out that the latter is not tenable, however, human-centered doctrine needs revising and improving. Criminal law takes protecting people as its central task. Here, it cannot be simply regarded as individual selfish departmentalism, let alone interpreted as the persons alive. It should be defined as a whole, with foresight. The crime of polluting theenvironment infringes the interests not only of individuals, but also of mankind; not only of people alive, but also of our offspring. Therefore, criminal law should bring all conducts that are probable to pollute the environment and affect human survival under its umbrella. Moreover, the relation between environmental protection and economic development is approached in the thesis. It points out that the unity of opposites of environment and economy brings lots of economic factors into consideration when punishing the crime of polluting the environment with criminal law. It is also applicable in China.Section III: This section mainly deals with the constitutive elements of the crime of polluting the environment. At first, the criminal object is analyzed. The author holds that it is scientific and rational to set the environmental right as object of the crime. Consequently, the thesis probes into the objective aspect of the crime, covers the behavioral targets, the establishment of potential damage offence, the causality, and etc. With regard to the behavioral target of the crime, in author's opinion, for the crimes of domestic pollutant disposal, the present regulations that limit the behavioral targets of the crime to four kinds of pollutants are not appropriate; for the crimes emerging in the entries and disposals of pollutants from abroad, the target should be extended to liquid and gas wastes, in addition to solid wastes. With regard to the establishment of potential damage offence, the author holds that it is the trend in the development of criminal law to penalize the conducts which potentially endanger environment. The dangers includes both concrete ones and abstract ones. For the recognition of causality, the author deems it proper to quote foreign theory of epidemical causality, and provides an introduction. At last, the subjective aspects of the crime of polluting the environment are analyzed. In view of the significance of the crime of serious environmental polluting accident, the author studies its subjective fault respectively, and draws a conclusion that it contains both intention and negligence. In addition, some foreign scholars who think it difficult to judge the subjective fault of the crime of polluting the environment put forward a new theory of worry and fear, while some domestic scholars propose to implement strict liability in dealing with the crime of polluting the environment. The author negates these two opinions, for that the theory of worryand fear has inherent defect, and at the same time, strict liability lapse from the principal demands of criminal law in China.Section IV: The criminal sanction of the crime of polluting the environment is probed into in this section. The author incline to apply imprisonment to this kind of crime, and get rid of capital punishment. Usually, the motivation of the crime is pursuing profits. It differs from some malignant violent crimes in essence. The current punishment set by criminal law is appropriate in severity, and needs no increase. The author suggests the expansion of applying pecuniary penalty. In addition, some non-criminal punishments may be adopted in criminal law. Some of them are proposed in the following content. According to the characteristics of the crime, the author holds that three non-criminal punishments may work, that is, to repent publicly, to be ordered for remedy and to get confined in activities.