Environmental crime and the role of the magistrates’ courts June 24, 2009

Julie Adshead, of the University's Salford Centre of Legal Research and Tim Andrew, solicitor, Burton Copeland will be delivering this seminar.

There are broad and long-standing concerns with enforcement mechanisms and practice in environmental law. In particular, criticisms have been raised with regard to the low number of prosecutions, the level of penalties imposed by the courts and the ability of local magistrates'; courts to deal with environmental crime.

Such dissatisfaction must be viewed within a complex contextual back drop. For many years there has been debate as to whether breaches of environmental regulation should in fact be seen as
crime.

The current wider; Better Regulation; agenda of the government is at the same time seeking to ease burdens on industry. There has also been a paradigm shift in the wider context of criminal justice from bringing offenders before the court and imposing sentence to the adoption of a wide range of fixed penalties and fiscal fines. The limited resources of government and regulator are also influential factors, especially in the current economic climate.

These pressures are set against increasing environmental awareness and the imperative of global warming. There is also a body of thought that maintains that environmental crime should be
viewed and dealt with more seriously than is currently the case.

This paper explores the competing arguments and considers whether criticism of the current administration of justice in environmental cases in the magistrates; courts (where the vast majority of cases are heard) is justified. Consideration is also given to the future role of the magistrates' courts in the light of new provisions recently introduced in the Regulatory Enforcement and
Sanctions Act, 2008.



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