El derecho al medio ambiente en la justicia penal
- Autores: Elena de Luis García
- Directores de la Tesis: Silvia Barona Vilar (dir. tes.), Emiliano Borja Jiménez (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat de València ( España ) en 2018
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: María Isabel González Cano (presid.), Elena Górriz Royo (secret.), John A. E. Vervaele (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Justicia Internacional por la Universitat de València (Estudi General)
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TESEO
- Resumen
This doctoral thesis aims to analyse the protection of the environment in the criminal justice system, considering the relation between human rights, environment and criminal justice. It is undeniable that environmental protection constitutes an increasing global concern, which is reflected in the expansion of environmental legislation, both in national and international legal systems. This phenomenon started in the last half of the twentieth century with the first global recognition of the relation between human rights and the environment in the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972, which represented a landmark in the process of expansion of environmental rights. For the first time, the necessity to protect the environment for present and future generations was declared within the most important international organisation. This declaration, and the ones who followed, led to a wave of reforms in human rights tools and national constitutions worldwide, enshrining the substantive right to a healthy environment, as well as procedural environmental rights, that is, information, participation and access to justice in environmental matters. Along with the growth of environmental rights, environmental criminal law enforcement expanded, first, in a national level and, later, in an international one, being the approval of the Environmental Crime Directive (2008/99/EC) a major achievement for the protection of the environment in Europe. The need to protect the environment through criminal law has been justified by the effect that environmental conditions have on people#s health and quality of life, which can be seen in relation to the scope of protection granted by the right to a healthy environment. For this reason, the first objective of this research is to analyse whether the expansion of environmental criminal law is a consequence of the growth of environmental rights. However, the effectiveness of the protection given to the environment by criminal law does not lie exclusively in the way environmental crimes are defined in the legislation, but also depends on the mechanisms provided by the legal system to tackle environmental crimes, that is, access to criminal justice for the defence of the environment. Thus, the second objective of the current research is to analyse the adequacy of the Spanish criminal procedure for the protection of the environment, in what concerns mechanisms not only to prosecute environmental crimes, but also to claim compensation for damages caused to both individuals and society. On this basis, the aim of this dissertation is to examine the effect that the emergence and evolution of environmental rights have had over environmental criminal justice and if the expansion in both environmental rights and environmental criminal law is reflected in the criminal procedure, because only under this circumstance the protection of the environment through criminal law will be effective.
