A green criminological perspective on the criminalisation of corporate environmental harms: an empirical assessment from the Italian legal landscape

• In Event: Green Criminology #5- Environmental crimes and economic activities

Abstract

The ongoing environmental and climate crisis is a complex phenomenon with economic mechanisms and social organization as primary factors. Market profit sustains the persistence of environmental crimes, and corporations are the primary agents.
In response, legal systems worldwide have implemented environmental crimes, following an administrative model and, more recently, a more harm-focused one. The EU has intervened on several occasions, encouraging the protection of the environment also through criminal instruments.
However, the offenses introduced this way often fail to tackle the root causes and are criticized for their ineffectiveness and lack of respect for guarantee principles.
This research examines the effect of the criminalization model on the persistence of corporate environmental crime, focusing on Italy as a case study. The analysis proposes a comprehensive study of the criminal legal framework using green criminology and socio-legal frameworks. This extensive empirical legal research includes a detailed examination of approximately 300 cases judged by the Court of Cassation concerning crimes against the environment in the Italian Criminal Code. The study investigates the perpetrators of the crimes, their geographical location, the severity of the environmental damage, the identity of the person responsible, the economic context, and the sentencing.
This research empirically substantiates critical issues discussed within the criminal law scholarship, such as the lack of prevention capacity and enforcement issues. It highlights how criminal law backfires efforts to fight corporate environmental crimes by contradictorily creating a crime-facilitating environment.
Ultimately, the research will facilitate a critical assessment of new developments in environmental crime and their potential impact on enhancing corporate criminal responsibility for the environment. Precisely, it provides a criminological background study to better assess the relevance of current EU legal initiatives to directly and indirectly contrast/tackle corporate criminal responsibility for environmental damages. (e.g., EC Directive, Regulation n.2023/1115, the long-discussed CSDD Proposal).

Author

• Federica Montanaro, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies