A longitudinal and comparative analysis of regulating industrial pollution in the Netherlands.

• In Event: GREEN Panel 1, Environmental Crimes of the Powerful: Corporate Harm and Regulatory Failure across Industries

Abstract

This paper analyzes how regulation of harmful corporate conduct emerges and develops over time, and studies the longer-term, multifaceted relationship between corporate and governmental actors and interests, in which social harms are rooted. The longitudinal and comparative analysis of two long-lasting cases of industrial pollution in the Netherlands - the case of Hoogovens/Tata Steel and of DuPont de Nemours/Chemours – is based on historical archives of government and company documents and media publications. Five mechanisms that were central to the government-industry interactions about industrial pollution over four times periods since the 1960s emerge and together illustrate how a ‘regime of permission’ emerged, enabling harmful corporate conduct to continue over decades. It demonstrates how over time the regulatory pressures on industry are rather lenient, favoring economic prosperity over public and environmental health. Regulatory decision-making was not only fragmented but also largely dependent on corporate information about pollution. This paper posits that the government ultimately got caught in the legal web it spun itself.

Authors

• Lieselot Bisschop, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Karin van Wingerde, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Sammie Verbeek, VU Amsterdam

• Julie Le Sage, Erasmus University Rotterdam