Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law

The main goal of the thesis is to answer the question, whether the current Czech criminal legislation enables effective punishment of serious environmental offences and ensures the enforcement of rules on environmental protection in a more efficient way than administrative sanctions. Protection of the environment through the criminal law can be traced in the Czech Republic back to 1980s. However, criminal law has until now played only marginal role in the sanctioning of offences against the environment. Majority of environmental offences are prosecuted in administrative procedures. Since 1990s the international community and later also the EU have discussed the need to pursue a harmonised criminal policy aimed at the protection of the environment. In case of serious environmental violations criminal law penalties are perceived as a more effective and appropriate measure than administrative penalties. Despite the fact that most of the potentially harmful activities are strictly regulated by both EU and national environmental law, environment continues to be threatened by pollution and excessive exploitation and environmental rules are being breached. The most serious environmental crimes are related to waste management, trade in endangered fauna and flora species and discharge or emission of..