Models of Environmental Criminal Law, Between Dependence on Administrative Law and Autonomy

Abstract

The article intends to analyse the pluses and minuses of traditional environmental criminal law’s dependence on administrative law. The two possible forms of integration between criminal and administrative law, i.e., the so-called ‘purely accessory’ and ‘partially accessory’ models, are evaluated from a comparative perspective, while also considering the European Directive 2008/99/European Community (EC) on the protection of the environment through criminal law, and the new proposal for a Directive, replacing the previous one, put forward by the European Commission in December 2021. Followed by a reflection on the different model of environmental criminal law, autonomous from administrative law (also called the ‘purely criminal’ model: a model that should be associated with the purely accessory one and the partially accessory one). models of the environmental criminal law, eco-crimes, environmental criminal law’s dependence on administrative law, purely accessory model, autonomy of environmental criminal law from administrative law, European Directive 2008/99/EC on environmental crimes, European Commission proposal (2021) for a new ‘Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of the environment through criminal law and replacing Directive 2008/99/EC’