Negligence Liability In American Environmental Criminal Legislation And Inspiration

With the rapid development of society and economy, and expanding scope of human activities, environmental pollution is becoming worse. Once the environment is destroyed, it will be very difficult to be restored. Therefore, many countries have mended their pace in protecting the environment. Although great advances have been made in our country’s environmental laws since 1970 s, but compared with other developed countries there is still a gap in environmental protection and need to be improved.Firstly, this paper introduces a brief overview of American environmental law, and its legal sources, forms and classical legislations. Secondly, this paper introduces the criminal negligence liability in American environmental law in detail on the basis of Clean Water Act by case-study methods. Last but no least, it is suggested that we should gain some experience from American environmental system and criminal sanction cases. Only in this way can we find the defects of our environmental laws. By combining the experience and the current situation of our country, we hope to establish a better environmental law system and thus to reach the standard of sustainable development and pursue harmonious coexistence for man and nature.