Criminal Liability of Legal Entities for Environmental Crimes:

Foreign Experience for the Russian Legislature

Nikolay Makhonko

, Elena Tarasova

, Elena Abanina

and Yulia Plotnikova

Saratov State Law Academy, Saratov, Russia

Keywords: Criminal law, environmental crimes, criminal liability, environmental law, legal entities.

Abstract: The article focuses on the problems of criminal liability of legal entities for environmental crimes in foreign

countries and this institution implementation in the Russian Federation. To this end, the research is performed

as a comprehensive review of the theory and practice of introducing criminal liability of legal entities as a

result of linkages between criminal and environmental law. To achieve this goal, the international conventions

and certain types of documents of the European Union on environmental protection (Directives and

Regulations) were examined in research The substantiation of a unified approach to the creation of an integral

legal system based on the principles of interdisciplinary unification and integration was based on the use of

general scientific methods: structural-functional, probabilistic and case study methods. The results of the

introduction of provisions on the criminal liability of legal entities for environmental crimes in the national

Criminal Codes of Denmark, Norway, Poland, Finland, France are presented. The practice in the criminal

standards application in respect of ecology in the United States of America is analyzed separately. It is noted

that on most topical issues, national criminal laws are of a similar nature and have common approaches:

scientifically grounded methods of applying criminal liability of legal entities and special methods of

influencing their behavior. The necessity of a systematic approach to solving the problem of introducing

criminal liability of legal entities for environmental crimes in the Russian Federation has been substantiated.

1 INTRODUCTION

In recent decades, the world economy has changed

the vector of development of all industries towards

modern industry greening, which is performed

through the modernization of all process lines of

production and individual industrial enterprises

(Trikoz, 2020; Piroozfar, 2019; Knight, 2017).

Undoubtedly, this process and legislative

mechanisms for environmental protection are

stimulated by the upgrading of penalties of economic

entities for the results of their activities (Spapens,

2018). Following these trends, a comprehensive

analysis of the international legal component of the

criminal liability of legal entities for environmental

crimes becomes relevant (Greife, 2020). The latest

discoveries of world science have proven the direct

dependence of environmental and human health on

https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000

the negative impact of industrial facilities (Altopiedi,

2019; Bagreeva, 2018). Despite the fact that almost

the entire international community has switched to

the ecological modernization of the economy, the

issues of economic entities (legal entities)

responsibility remain largely controversial. In the

authors’ opinion, there is a misconception that the

problems of bringing legal entities to criminal

responsibility in the Russian Federation are not

relevant. The evidence base for this opinion was the

textbook appeals to the geographical features of the

country: a colossal territory, a variety of climatic

zones and an uneven regional concentration of the

permanently resident population. Nevertheless, the

Russian Federation has international obligations in

respect of environmental protection. The interests of

the Russian economy are associated with an increase

in the export of domestic goods, services and

Makhonko, N., Tarasova, E., Abanina, E. and Plotnikova, Y.

Criminal Liability of Legal Entities for Environmental Crimes: Foreign Experience for the Russian Legislature.

DOI: 10.5220/0010628900003152

In Proceedings of the VII International Scientiﬁc-Practical Conference “Criminal Law and Operative Search Activities: Problems of Legislation, Science and Practice” (CLOSA 2021), pages

65-69

ISBN: 978-989-758-532-6; ISSN: 2184-9854

technologies. Tough competition has become the

reality of today in world markets due to the

compliance of technologies and products with

modern environmental requirements. Therefore, the

Russian economy is actively involved in the process

of adaptation to international environmental

standards, which, of course, requires the legislature to

return to the issues of criminal liability of legal

entities for environmental crimes (Rozenko, 2017). In

this regard, the most important problem is the

relationship between “action” and “consequences”

with regard to environmental crimes of

environmental protection (Lopashenko, 2020).

Therefore, the problem of criminal liability of legal

entities is of great interest and professional

controversy among legal scholars and law

enforcement officers (Selivanovskaya, 2018). Note

that this institute already exists in many European

countries and countries of the North American

continent (Ladychenko, 2019; Golubev, 2020). These

states have accumulated significant legislative

experience and have developed a stable law

enforcement practice to bring legal entities to

criminal responsibility for environmental crimes, the

study of which is necessary in order to improve

Russian legislation.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

As part of the research, primary sources were

analyzed - legal acts regulating the criminal liability

of legal entities for environmental crimes in European

countries and the United States, as well as the

prospects for bringing economic entities to justice in

the Russian Federation.

The regulatory legal acts of the international and

national levels of criminal legislation were used in

research. Close attention was paid to the European

legislation on environmental protection in the

economic activities implementation by legal entities.

Certain types of documents of the European Union on

environmental protection are represented by

conventions, directives and regulations. The general

issues of unification of the national legislation norms

with international legal norms, the complexity of

approaches to environmental protection and the

prosecution of legal entities for environmental crimes

are considered. The article analyzes the features of the

US Model Criminal Code, the norms of which operate

at two levels - federal and regional (state). In order to

develop a general theoretical approach, the works of

well-known scientists of criminal, environmental and

international law were studied, which influenced the

structure and results of the research. To substantiate a

unified approach to an integral legal system creation

based on the principles of interdisciplinary

unification and integration, general scientific

methods were used: the structural-functional method,

the probabilistic method, the case study method.

Private scientific methods were used: the method of

comparative legal analysis, legal statistics, the

method of legal modeling and the method of legal

forecasting. Also, the methodological basis of the

research should include the environmental-legal and

empirical methods.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Regulatory legal acts, which are international and

adopted in recent decades, determine the main

directions of environmental protection, as well as

form a new vision of the application of criminal

liability for environmental crimes (Luttenberger,

2017). The founding act was the Council of Europe's

Environmental Program, developed and adopted in

1961. According to this program, the European Union

countries have formed the basic directions of national

environmental policies. When forming the

foundations of the national environmental policy,

each specific state took into account not only its

inherent, but also general European environmental

problems: the economic efficiency of the main

production, the corresponding development of

innovative technologies and techniques in various

sectors of the economy, social tension due to national

environmental problems and the level of public

consciousness on relation to the country's

international obligations (Kitteringham, 2020).

Therefore, a unified and comprehensive approach to

environmental protection and responsibility for

environmental crimes has developed on the European

continent.

CLOSA 2021 - VII INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL CONFERENCE “CRIMINAL LAW AND OPERATIVE SEARCH

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Table 1: Certain types of documents of the European Union on environmental protection

Conventions Directives Resolutions

The Convention on Long-range

Transboundary

Air Pollution (Geneva, 1979);

The Convention on the Conservation of

Antarctic Marine Living Resources

(Canberra, 1980); The Vienna Convention

for the Protection of the Ozone Layer

(Vienna, 1985);

The Convention on the Protection of

Environment through Criminal Law

(Strasbourg, 1998).

The Council Directive of the European

Union 96/61/EC 24.09.199 (integrated

pollution prevention and control);

The Council of Europe Directive 96/62/EC

27.09.1996 (ambient air quality assessment

and management);

The Directive 2004/35/EC 21.04.2004

(environmental liability

with regard to the prevention and

remedying of environmental damage).

Resolution No. 1655/2000 17.07.2000

(financial instrument

for the environment);

The Regulation (EU) No 761/2001 19.03.

2001 (voluntary participation by

organisations in a Community eco-

management and audit scheme);

The Regulation (EU) No. 166/2006

18.01.2006 (establishment of a European

Pollutant Release and Transfer Register).

As can be seen from the above materials, a

significant number of European Union regulatory

legal acts highlight specific problems of

environmental protection. The national policy of each

country is in the vector of requirements, which are set

out in the conventions, directives and regulations of

the European Union (Scholten, 2017). As a result, the

European Committee on Crime Problems of the

Council of Europe in 1978 proposed to discuss the

possibility of prosecuting legal entities for committed

environmental crimes. Table 2 shows the results of

this recommendation implementation in the national

Criminal Codes of a number of European countries.

Table 2: Certain European Union countries that have

incorporated provisions on the criminal liability of legal

entities for environmental crimes into national criminal

legislation (chronological order).

Norway France Finland Denmark Poland

1991 1992 1995 1998 2002

+ + + + +

The next stage of performing the coherent

environmental policy was the Convention on the

Protection of Environment through Criminal Law,

adopted in Strasbourg in 1998. The document

identified the main reasons for the development and

adoption of this concept:

 critical levels of negative impact on the

environment are the result of uncontrolled

economic activity;

 human life and health, biological diversity and

the environment, in general, must be protected

by all means known to modern mankind;

 negative (dangerous) consequences for

environmental health are classified as criminal

offenses that entail appropriate sanctions.

The Council of Europe has defined two levels of

measures to be taken in the environment protection

through the norms of criminal law - the national level

and the international level. Table 3 shows the limits

of national jurisdiction depending on the territory,

object and subject of the wrongful act.

Table 3: Determination of the fact of jurisdiction over an

environmental crime:

The crime was committed:

on the territor

of a

articular state

on a civil ship in a sea or river basin

on board a civil aircraft

y a citizen of a particular country

With regard to civil sea or river ships (Caballero,

2017; Vollaard, 2017) or all types of civil aircraft

(aircraft, helicopters, gliders, etc.), a rule has been

established that these objects must operate under the

flag of a specific country or be registered in its

territory. Each state is empowered to take the

necessary steps to establish jurisdiction over the

relevant criminal offense. Among the necessary

measures at the international level, the Convention on

the Protection of Environment through Criminal Law

includes ensuring the maximum degree of interaction

in the investigation and assistance in procedural

actions in relation to criminal offenses.

Analyzing the practice of applying the criminal

law norms in the field of ecology in the United States

of America, it should be noted that it is characterized

by a two-level system. The federal level is

characterized by the absence of a criminal law with a

complete codification of corpus delicti, as well as

punishment measures for legal entities for committed

criminal acts. The Model Criminal Code has been

developed and adopted at the federal level in the

United States, and has the following features:

 is clear recommendatory in nature;

 is intended as a basis for the development of

separate criminal codes for each state. Table 4

presents the process of differentiating

environmental crimes at federal and regional

(state) levels.

Criminal Liability of Legal Entities for Environmental Crimes: Foreign Experience for the Russian Legislature

Table 4: The result of environmental crimes differentiation

in the United States.

Federal level Particular state level

A crime punishable

under a federal

legislation

A crime punishable under

the legislation of a

articular state

Note that most environmental crimes are

consolidated into a group of so-called “federal

crimes”. Indeed, a certain negative impact on the

environment caused by these crimes, as a rule, is

inflicted on adjacent territories, that is,

simultaneously in several states or several specially

protected territories and objects. Current US criminal

legislation provides for various penalties for legal

entities for environmental crimes. For example,

criminal penalties (Greife, 2017) as a cover for the

state's expenses for the restoration of the disturbing

quality of the environment. A complex of additional

criminal legal sanctions against legal entities is also

widely used. These sanctions should include

significant restrictions in the registration of

government loans and grants, as well as in the receipt

of financial preferences provided for by US

legislation. Among the effective sanctions, experts

single out the prohibition (restriction) of the right to

conclude state (federal) contracts and cancellation of

licenses for the right to perform certain types of

economic activity.

The issue of criminal liability of legal entities for

environmental crimes is still controversial in the

Russian Federation (Grebennikov, 2017). Recall that

the Russian legislature has already made attempts to

discuss the introduction of the institution of criminal

liability of legal entities. Recall that a similar draft

Federal Law was developed by the Investigative

Committee of Russia in 2011. The developer

presented measures of criminal law in respect of legal

entities that were justified in a theoretical and law-

making sense. A timely positive solution to this

problem will undoubtedly have a stimulating effect

on strengthening inter-branch ties between the

criminal and environmental law of the Russian

Federation. In turn, the introduction of criminal

liability of legal entities for environmental crimes will

become a guarantor of the implementation of

preventive measures in relation to objects of criminal

law protection. The existing vector of the

implementation of environmental standards of the

Russian Federation and similar standards of foreign

countries will improve the process of regulating the

criminal liability of legal entities for environmental

crimes.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The results of the research allowed the authors to

make certain conclusions and proposals.

Inter-branch integration of criminal and

environmental law in terms of bringing legal entities

to criminal responsibility for environmental crimes

requires an integrated and systematic approach.

International regulatory legal acts not only determine

the main directions of environmental protection, but

also form modern approaches to the application of

measures of legal entities criminal liability for

environmental crimes.

At the international level (the European Union and

the United States of America), a unified and

comprehensive approach to environmental protection

and responsibility for environmental crimes has

developed, which should be studied by the Russian

legislature in order to upgrade the penalties of legal

entities for the "environmental" results of their

economic activities. The central direction of this field

is the timely introduction of the institution of criminal

liability of legal entities for environmental crimes into

the legislation of the Russian Federation.

The research of international and domestic

experience emphasizes the need for an early

correlation between the norms of criminal law and

environmental law to ensure adequate measures for

environmental protection and rational use of natural

resources.

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