Criminal law remedies for environmental problems

The nature of environmental crimes and harms are such that mainstream legal systems are arguably ill-equipped to deal with them, in part because they fall outside of the normative business of the courts and legal profession.

The administrative foundations of environmental law can actually be used, therefore, as a tool to ensure that the criminal law principles are met in practice, even if they are in conflict with the formalized system put in place by the environmental law standard concerned.

Enforcing environmental laws is a central part of EPA's Strategic Plan to protect human health and the environment.
EPA works to ensure compliance with environmental requirements.
When warranted, EPA will take civil or criminal enforcement action against violators of environmental laws.
Learn more about our enforcement goals.

Yet such crimes are often dealt with outside of the mainstream of criminal law and criminal justice.
Instead of falling within the remit of the criminal law, some environmental harms are engaged with specifically through the prism of environmental law and within a civil and administrative framework rather than a distinctly criminal justice one.