Environmental criminal law

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The Umweltstrafrecht is a branch of German criminal law, the strong references to public environmental legislation has.

Legal sources

Insofar as sanction norms in environmental protection laws serve as a legal source for environmental criminal law, the administrative accessory nature of environmental criminal law applies, i.e. H. criminal liability is based on the violation of - certain - administrative obligations. For example, the construction of a system without the permit required under immission control law constitutes an administrative offense ( Section 62 (1) No. 1 BImschG) and can be prohibited and shut down by the competent authority ( Section 20 (2) BImschG). The operation of such a system is according to Section 327 (2) sentence 1 no. 1 StGB punishable by law.

Recent development of environmental criminal law in Germany

With the 1st Act to Combat Environmental Crime ( UKG , 18th Criminal Law Amendment Act, Federal Law Gazette I p. 373 ), on July 1, 1980, some important norms of environmental criminal law were added to the newly created 28th section of the StGB (now the §§ 324 ff. StGB in section 29). Previously, environmental criminal law was purely ancillary criminal law and was only regulated as an annex to the individual administrative environmental protection laws.

With the step of expressly introducing environmental criminal law into the general penal code, two goals were pursued:

  1. It should be made clear that the damage to natural resources has a socially damaging character that is comparable to that of other crimes that are more common in the public eye.
  2. The aim was to counteract the damage that was becoming more and more visible through more extensive sanctioning options.

The changes resulting from the first UKG were criticized early on as inadequate. Nevertheless, it took until 1994 for the second UKG to implement at least some requirements for improvement. With the 2nd UKG ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1440 ), the protection of soil and air in particular and nature reserves was expanded. At the same time, the handling and transport of dangerous substances and goods was sanctioned more comprehensively, as was the area of ​​nuclear and radiation protection. As has long been called for, the import and export of hazardous waste was made a criminal offense.

Important areas of environmental criminal law

Environmental criminal law is particularly familiar with criminal provisions in the area

  • Water protection
  • Soil protection
  • natural reserve
  • Immission control
  • Radiation protection
  • Protection against improper handling of waste

Water protection criminal law

The regulations that relate to the protection of waters are among the first environmental criminal law norms that were created in German law. At the same time, the penalties for water pollution are relatively high, at least compared to those that apply to the protection of other environmental goods.

A legal definition for the term "waters" can be found in § 330d No. 1 StGB. According to this, the term "waters" includes

  • the surface water,
  • the groundwater and
  • Ocean.

The following criminal offenses of the StGB serve to protect waters:

From the area of ​​ancillary criminal law:

literature

Web links

  • Martin Heger, Renaissance of environmental criminal justice? HRRS [1]

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hereditary property / slag: Environmental law . Section 2, marginal number 16.