Abstract
The study investigates the role that criminal law could play within the framework of actions that must be put in place in Italy to deal with climate change. Even if the issue related to the climatic crisis has been reflected in numerous recent legislative and judicial initiatives (found in the national legal systems and at international levels), as well as in the actual disruptive exposure of the topic in public debate, there has not been sufficient reflection on a possible role for criminal law to counter this phenomenon. A criminalist reflection is appropriate to assess what role should be attributed to criminal law in dealing with international climate crimes and to ponder whether such action, within the limits of the fundamental principles governing the subject (starting with those of offensiveness, personal responsibility, proportionality and subsidiarity), is exhausted within the scope of national legislation or can be extended to the international perspective. Starting from the observation that there is a deep distinction between “climate” and “environment”, an attempt will be made to identify and define “climate”, to assess whether it can rise to the status of an autonomous interest protected by the law worthy of protection by criminal law. This proves essential for the identification of a possible “punitive” law of climate, which could presumably be characterized by the use of criminal sanction with a purely ancillary function to the administrative law – called upon to regulate the issue – if not by the use of administrative sanction alone.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
Technical, Political, and Social Responses
KEYWORDS
CLIMATE CHANGE, CRIMINAL LAW, ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES
