Abstract
A recent development in South African environmental law is the use of plea and sentencing agreements. The main objective of environmental law is to promote the sustainable use of natural resources while preventing pollution and ecological degradation. Grand environmental due diligence processes could achieve sustainable development; the use of criminal sanctions with sentencing agreements could be more effective. This paper answers the question whether the plea and sentencing agreements in reality achieve the objectives of environmental regulation? This study analyses this recent development by looking at selected recent cases in South Africa. The study found that plea and sentence agreements are potentially effective, subject to the effective monitoring of compliance and enforcement against non-compliance with the undertakings made by the accused person. Without institutional strengthening and effective monitoring, the plea and sentence agreement procedure remains ineffective.
Highlights
Legal context of criminal environmental enforcementA fundamental challenge for environmental law globally and in South Africa is the inability to design, develop and implement effective enforcement tools
Through the theoretical and empirical review of some recent cases,23 we argue that the increasing use of plea and sentence agreements in South Africa may carry better prospects for achieving the real objectives of environmental regulation
We first highlight the fundamental objectives of environmental regulation, we provide an overview of the general legislative framework for plea and sentencing agreements in South Africa
Summary
A fundamental challenge for environmental law globally and in South Africa is the inability to design, develop and implement effective enforcement tools. Many countries have developed good sectoral environmental laws such as legislation on water, air pollution control, waste, hazardous substances control, marine resources and marine pollution, environmental planning and environmental impact assessment.. A typical feature of the enforcement provisions in most environmental legislation is the persistence of criminal penalties or sanctions as a method of punishing environmental offenders. For example, all of South African environmental legislation uses criminal penalties to enforce its prescriptions. The use of "offences" per se shows that criminal penalties remain the preferred enforcement mechanism, while other enforcement mechanisms such as economic instruments and civil
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