Would the administrative liability of legal persons for environmental violations in Lithuania implement the principle of inevitability more effectively than economic sanctions and would not contradict the principle of non bis in idem?

Pastaraisiais metais Lietuvoje įvykusios ekologinės nelaimės (gaisras Alytaus padangų perdirbimo gamykloje, „Grigeo Klaipėda“ neteisėtas nuotekų leidimas į Kuršių marias ir kt.), susijusios su juridinių asmenų aplinkos apsaugos reikalavimų pažeidimais, atskleidė, jog šiai dienai Lietuvoje galiojanti tiek fizinių, tiek ypač juridinių asmenų pareigų, susijusių su aplinkos apsauga, vykdymu ir jų kontrole, tvarka nėra tinkamai įgyvendinama pagal galiojančius teisės aktus. Lietuvoje juridinių asmenų atsakomybė už šiuos pažeidimus, įgyvendinama per baudžiamosios ir civilinės atsakomybių bei ekonominių sankcijų taikymą per Aplinkos apsaugos įstatymą ir fizinių asmenų, veikiančių juridinio asmens vardu, administracinės atsakomybės taikymą. Kitaip sakant, administracinių nusižengimų kodekse, administracinė juridinių asmenų atsakomybė ir taikomos ekonominės sankcijos nėra tinkamai sureglamentuotos. Darbe buvo iškelta hipotezė, kad administracinė juridinių asmenų atsakomybė už aplinkos apsaugos pažeidimus Lietuvoje efektyviau nei ekonominės sankcijos įgyvendintų atsakomybės neišvengiamumo principą ir neprieštarautų non bis in idem principui. Hipotezei patvirtinti arba paneigti, suformuluoti pagrindiniai darbo tyrimo uždaviniai, kurių pagalba turėjome išsiaiškinti Lietuvos juridinių asmenų teisinės atsakomybės už aplinkos apsaugos pažeidimus subjektiškumą, veikiančių teisės aktų reguliavimo problemiškumą, palyginti ekonominių sankcijų ir griežtos atsakomybės (be kaltės) doktrinos veiksmingumą, užtikrinant juridinių asmenų administracinę atsakomybę aplinkos apsaugos srityje, įvertinti ar griežtos atsakomybės doktrinos taikymas reglamentuojant juridinių asmenų atsakomybę, eliminuotų non bis in idem principą ir labiau nei ekonominės sankcijos užtikrintų atsakomybės neišvengiamumo principą. Darbo tikslas buvo atskleisti administracinės atsakomybės juridiniams asmenims specifiką ir įvertinti, ar įtvirtinus šios atsakomybės rūšį Lietuvoje juridiniams asmenims už aplinkos apsaugos pažeidimus, efektyviau nei esamas nepakankamas teisinis reguliavimas per ekonomines sankcijas, būtų įgyvendinamas atsakomybės neišvengiamumo principas ir nepažeidžiamos non bis in idem principo nuostatos. Tyrimui atlikti buvo naudojami aprašomasis ir sisteminės analizės, loginis ir lyginamasis bei teleologinis metodai, išvadoms suformuoti pasirinkome analitinį-kritinį metodą. Atlikus tiriamąjį darbą nustatyta, kad Lietuvoje juridinių asmenų administracinę atsakomybę reglamentuojantys įstatymai, nepateikia vieningo juridinių asmenų administracinės atsakomybės reguliavimo modelio, neišsprendžia juridinio asmens subjektiškumo ir kaltės problemos, o skirtingų rūšių poveikio priemonių taikymas apsunkina nubaudimo procesą ir sudaro sąlygas išvengti atsakomybės iš viso. Galime teigti, jog darbe iškelta hipotezė pasitvirtino, ir, mūsų nuomone, administracinės atsakomybės instituto įvedimas juridinių asmenų atsakomybei už aplinkos apsaugos pažeidimus taikymui gali efektyviau pasiekti neišvengiamumo ir dvigubo nubaudimo principų tinkamą įgyvendinimą.Recent ecological disasters in Lithuania (fire at Alytus tire processing plant, illegal discharge of wastewater to Kuršių marios bu Grigeo Klaipėda and etc.) are related to violations of environmental protection requirements by legal persons. The situation showed that the current procedure of obligatons of both natural and legal persons related to environmental protection, performance and control in Lithuania is not properly implemented in accordance with the applicable legal acts. Administrative liability is usually applied for ecological (environmental) law violations. In Lithuania the liability of legal persons for these violations is implemented through the application of criminal and civil liability and economic sanctions in accordance with the Law on Environmental Protection and through the application of administrative liability of natural persons acting on behalf of a legal person. In other words, the administrative liability of legal persons and the applicable economic sanctions are not properly regulated in the Code of Administrative Offenses. In our point of view, this procedure is flawed, because the imposition of administrative penalties on natural persons acting on behalf of a legal person does not have a dirrect effect on the legal person itself, as it does not have a direct economic impact. So this legal regulation does not lead to an effective reduction of violations committed by legal persons. As we see, when an administrative penalty is imposed on a natural person acting on behalf of a legal person for the same violation under the Code of Administrative Offenses, and the application of economic sanctions to a legal person under the Law on Environmental Protection, results in a breach of the principle of double punishment for the same offense (a breach of non bis in idem principle). This hypothesis of the present master‘s thesis was that the administrative liability of legal persons for environmental violations in Lithuania would implement the principle of inevitability of liability more effectively then economic sanctions and would not contradict the principle of non bis in idem. To confirm or to disprove the hypothesis, we formulated the main tasks of the master's thesis research. Here we had to find out the subjectivity of the Lithuanian legal persons for environmental violations, the problematic regulation of existing legislation, comparing effectivness of economic sanctions and strict liabilty doctrine, in ensuring the administrative liability of legal persons in the field of environmental protection, to assess whether the application of the strict liability doctrine in regulating the liability of legal persons would eliminate the principle of non bis in idem and ensure the principle of the inevitability of liability more than economic sanctions. The aim of the master‘s thesis was to reveal the specifics of administrative liability for legal persons and to assess whether the principle of inevitability of liability would be implemented more effectively than the current insufficient legal regulation through econimic sanctions and the provisions of the non bis in idem principle would not be infringed. The master‘s thesis consists of 4 parts, conclusions and recomendatios are presented at the end of work. The first part of the master‘s thesis examined the concept of legal liability of legal persons and its place in the Lithaunian legal system. It has been established that, if a legal person violates the norms of environmental protection law, both civil, criminal and administrative liability can be applied. In Lithuania the main law regulating liability for administrative offenses is the Code of Administrative Offenses, in which liability is provided only for a natural person. The institute of liability of a legal person is not established there. The liability of legal persons for administrative violations is governed by directly applicable special laws, such as the Law of Environmental Protection. In the second part of master‘s thesis, economic sanctions were analyzed as a form of liability of legal persons for environmental violations. It has been established that the emergence of economic sanctions in legislation was determined by the need to find a wide-range measure to impose administrative liability on legal persons for violations. On the other hand, economic sanctions due to their repressive nature and the pursuit of prevention objectives, must be treated in the same way as penalties for administrative offenses. It was also established that neither international not Lithuanian legal acts prohibit double legal liability, only oppose double punishment. Criminal and civil liability for the same act may be applied either simultaneously and in a single act when the civil action is settled in a criminal case, or can be applied by several acts of law (initially by a judgement and then by a court decision in a civil case), but only to a limited amount. In criminal law, the provisions of the principle non bis in idem are not violated if a person is subjected to several sanctions provided for the same criminal act. The relationship between criminal and administrative liability for the same act is much more complicated due to the lack of specific delimitation criterias for these types of liability. The third part reviewed the essence of strict liability doctrine and its application in the establishement of administrative liability of legal persons. The strict liability doctrine is an exeption to fault-based liability, where liabilty is imposed on legal persons without proof of their fault. The main obstacle for establishing the administrative liability of legal persons is determination of their guilt for the violation committed. There is a presumption of innocence in administartive law, and determination of guilt relates to human characteristics – consciousness and will. A legal person, meanwhile, is an artificially created entity and cannot comprehend its actions. So by legalizing strict liability of legal persons for the most serious environmental violations, administrative liability could be applied just after proving their participation in the violation, without proving guilt. The last part of master‘s thesis reviews the legal regulation of administrative liability of legal persons in other countries of European Union. It has been established that economic sanctions for legal persons for environmental infringements are provided in the national legislation of many EU Member States. Besides some states recognize administrative sanctions for legal persons and have developed general principles for the application of administrative sanctions. In some cases administrative sanctions are not systematized in codes, but are enshrined in various legal acts, similarly to the situation in Lithuania. Descriptive and systematic analysis, logical and comparative and teleological methods were used for the research. We used analytical-critical method to form conclusions as well. The research found out that the laws regulating the administrative liability of legal persons in Lithuania do not provide a unified model for regulating the administrative liability of legal persons, do not solve the problem of legal personality and guilt as well, moreover the appication of different types of sanctions complicates the punishment process and avoids liability altogether. We can say that the hypothesis raised in this master‘s work has been confirmed, and in our opinion only the establisment of the institute of administrative liability of legal persons for environmental violations can achieve the proper implementation of the principles of inevitability and double punishment.Teisės fakulteta