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• Theoretical Aspects of "Green Criminal Law”

  77-90

  Krisztina Ficsor

  Views:

  192

  A major issue of legal theory today is to explore the problems raised by the so-called “green criminal law” or „green criminology.” Serious environmental disasters and the harmful effects of climate change also imply a rethinking of the established system and conceptual features of criminal law. Despite the European Union's efforts to develop environmental criminal law, the question arises as to whether criminal law can be seen as having an environmental function, and whether criminal law is suitable for protecting the environment. Recently there have been problems of effectiveness in the regulation of environmental criminal law at European and national level, and a new EU directive had to be adopted because the previous one had proved ineffective in achieving environmental objectives. It is therefore important to go deep inside the theoretical foundations that can provide a coherent explanation for the ineffectiveness of environmental criminal law and environmental regulation in general, and to find a justificatory framework that can justify the obligation to comply with these norms.

• The Human Rights Approach to Climate Change and the Anthropocentrism of Human Rights

  26-42

  Barbara Jakkel

  Views:

  197

  We live in the ’Anthropocene’, whereby human destructive activity is having such a major impact on Planet Earth that it has become the main culprit in the global ecological crisis involving climate change, biodiversity loss and overall pollution. The scientific conception of the Anthropocene makes it inevitable that societies will reconsider the myriad economic and legal institutions used to regulate the relationship between humans and the environment. Since, a critic from the environmental ethics perspective states that the ecological crisis has been brought about by an anthropocentric view that emphasizes the exclusivity of human interests, subordinating non-human beings to these human interests. Such eco- or biocentric approaches, giving rights to nature or constitutionalizing biodiversity, seem rather exotic to a European lawyer, as in climate policy fights of this region we make efforts to increase the role of human rights. In this paper, I would like to point out that legal solutions that go beyond an anthropocentric perspective should not be understood as a kind of exoticism, but as a fundamental challenge to human rights-based climate protection that seeks to extend the language of rights beyond humans and calls for a non-human-centred protection of the environment. I will argue that, while this challenge must be taken seriously, there are good reasons to continue to use the language of human rights to express our climate change-related demands.