Vague Notions in Environmental Criminal Law
Environmental Liability, Vol. 4, pp. 119-133, 2010
Environmental Liability, Vol. 5, pp. 163-170, 2010
24 Pages Posted: 20 Jan 2012 Last revised: 26 Jan 2012
Date Written: April 20, 2010
Abstract
In environmental criminal law, often vague notions are used to describe the behaviour that should be punished. This is also the case in a recent EC Directive on environmental crime. This EC Directive forces Member States to use the criminal law as an enforcement mechanism in case of violations of legislation implementing certain environmental directives. The Environmental Crime Directive itself, however, uses often vague notions such as "substantial damage". This paper addresses the question to what extent on the basis of legal doctrine and case law the use of vague notions is permitted in (environmental) criminal law. The case law of the European Court on Human Rights with respect to vague notions and the corresponding so-called lex certa principle is discussed as well as case law from a variety of other European courts. Also case law of the European Court of Justice is discussed. It is argued that there may be a possibility to reconcile the vague notions with a need for more precision by interpreting the vague notions in the Environmental Crime Directive in the light of other European environmental directives which provide further information on the way in which the vague notions could be interpreted.
Keywords: environmental law, criminal law, vague notions, human rights, substantial damage, lex certa principle, legality principle
JEL Classification: K14, K23, K32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation