The course aims to provide students with a method of analysing and interpreting environmental criminal law, through which they can approach the complexity - social and, consequently, politico-criminal - of the problems that characterise this sector of the so-called 'special part' of criminal law from a critical perspective. To this end, a multidisciplinary approach will be adopted.
First of all, the subject will be framed from a criminological point of view, following the perspective of the so-called Green Criminology, which - also through the study of leading cases - allows a complete focus on the criminal dynamics and the instances of protection (individual and collective) underlying environmental offences.
Secondly, a juridical analysis of the subject will be carried out, not only providing a systematic framework of the regulations in force (as defined in the Criminal Code and in the complementary criminal legislation), but also highlighting the influence and correlation relationships existing in the Italian legal system between environmental criminal law, constitutional provisions, secondary legislation and - last but not least - international legislation.
In particular, on the constitutional level, the evaluations at the basis of the so-called criminal protection “worthiness" of the environment will be reconstructed starting from the notion of this good, as recently defined thanks to Constitutional Law no. 1/2022 amending Articles 9 and 41 of the Italian Constitution.
At the international level, the main reference point will be the legislation of the European Union (starting with directive 2008/99/EC on the criminal protection of the environment), as well as the acts adopted within the Council of Europe and, in particular, within the framework of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The discipline defined by the United Nations Organisation (UN) will also be taken into consideration for the relevant aspects from a criminal law perspective. Given the relevance of the topic, particular attention will be devoted to the international criminal-political debate on the possible introduction of the crime of so-called “ecocide”.
Finally, the issues related to the criminal protection of the environment will be examined from the point of view of Environmental Restorative Justice, a relatively recent branch of the broad subject of Restorative Justice, committed to declining the tools of Restorative Justice with reference to the management of inter-individual and collective conflicts related to offences against the environment.
Consistent with the degree course's learning outcomes, at the end of the teaching the student is expected to (a) have mastered the criminology proper to crimes against the environment; (b) know and be able to argue the nature of the environment as a criminally relevant legal asset; (c) know, be able to interpret and apply crimes relevant to the environmental sector, linking them systematically to the principles and institutes of the general part of criminal law (d) be able to refer and discuss criminal case-law cases with regard to environmental matters; (e) be familiar with the sanctioning alternatives in the field of environmental punitive law in synergy with the tools made available by Restorative Justice; (f) make appropriate use of the legal-penal law language and be able to construct legal arguments: that is to say, the student must be able to independently assess relevant normative and/or jurisprudential data and proceed to a critical reading of the same in the light of the founding principles of the subject and the relevant categories in the political-criminal debate.