Protection of the environment under the draft Criminal Code of Ukraine and the European criminal law: a comparative study

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study approaches used in the Criminal Codes of certain European countries regarding: 1) location in their systems of special parts of norms on liability for encroachment on the environment; 2) comparison of these approaches with the version embodied in the project of the new Criminal Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Project); 3) development of scientifically founded recommendations on this basis, which can be used both for the improvement of the relevant provisions of the Project and for the relevant prescriptions of the criminal laws of European states. When analyzing legislation of specific European countries, as well as substantiating research results, a wide range of scientific methods has been used: comparative legal, dialectical, methods of system analysis and modeling. Based on the research, it is summarized that, contrary to the Ukrainian Project, the majority of European states consolidated all criminal offenses against the environment within a single structural element of the Special part of national Criminal Codes. Borrowing experience of countries where criminal law recognizes some offenses against the use of natural resources as types of offenses against property or economy was recognized as impractical.