Criminal Protection of Environment-Organized Crime and Effective Regret

Abstract

This paper analyzes special criminal offences of environment endangering through national and international legislation. How social aspect is important in criminal law because of prevention of injury, legislator predicted provision of effective regret if person acts as individual perpetrator or as part of criminal organization. That is key reason why paper analyzes effective regret prescribed in Criminal Code of Croatia in Special part (Head protecting environment and Head protecting public order). Mostly, environment will be injured by act of individual, but nowadays, environment is valuable resource that enables to gain large profit and as such is aim of criminal organizations. Legislator punishes mostly stadium of environment endangering, so paper reflects nature of provisions against environment on possibility of effective regret (instrument of stopping injury of legal good (material completion of criminal offence against environment)). Paper analyzes also UN Palermo Convention and EU Framework Decision against organized crime, specially provisions about conspiracy (when exists no criminal organization) and criminal organization and on end their comparison with legislation of Croatia. De lege ferenda is noted that Framework Decision must incriminate conspiracy established for only one criminal offence, and not for only two or more, because one criminal offence can have characteristics of organized crime as well. Paper concludes that it is necessary to predict effective regret by more criminal offences of environment endangering because it represents best way of legal good protection. If person acts as part of criminal organization, it should be sufficient that content of effective regret presents certainly prevention of commission of criminal offence without disclosure of criminal organization because protection of legal good (environment) should have an advantage over punishment of perpetrator.