The increase in environmental protection through Criminal Law

Abstract

Guaranteeing a clean environment is essential to assure the full development of human life and Criminal Law plays a key role in this protection. This study analyses the existing regulation of environmental Criminal Law and the necessity of changing it to reinforce the protection of the environment at national, European and international level, through means of a qualitative analysis and inductive reasoning. It concludes that, in Spain it is advisable to increase the length of the imprisonment penalty for environmental crimes included in article 325.1 of the Criminal Code. In the European Union, given the differences in the severity of penalties in Member States, it is necessary to harmonize the penalties by establishing a core of common minimum penalties. In the international field, there is currently a discussion on whether to extend the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, as well as on the development of an “ecocide” crime.