Legal Liability for Environmental Violations

General Provisions

Juridical liability for environmental violations represents a set of measures applied to persons who have violated the norms of environmental legislation. It is manifested in an additional obligation imposed on the violator, beyond the obligations already incumbent upon him, and is accompanied by adverse consequences aimed at restoring the disturbed ecological order.

Federal legislation establishes various types of liability for violations of environmental standards: property, disciplinary, administrative, and criminal. This approach ensures a comprehensive impact on the offender and serves as an effective mechanism for protecting the environment from negative impacts of economic and other activities.

In scientific literature, legal liability for environmental violations is defined as the interaction of the state, law enforcement agencies, and other authorized subjects with the violator with the aim of applying appropriate sanctions to them. An environmental violation is considered a wrongful act causing harm to the environment or creating a threat of such harm.

Key characteristics of an environmental violation include the unlawfulness of the action, the culpability of the subject, punishability, the nature of the environmental damage caused, public danger, and the type of offense. These characteristics allow for differentiating violations based on their level of social significance and selecting the appropriate measure of legal liability.

Juridical liability is divided into offenses and crimes. Offenses include administrative, disciplinary, and civil law violations, while crimes are criminal. This classification approach ensures the systematic application of norms and the effectiveness of protection of natural resources, preventing environmental risks and encouraging compliance with legislation.

As Yu.G. Zharikov notes, in law enforcement, it is more justified to view legal liability in general and environmental liability in particular as the wrongdoer's obligation to perform an additional duty beyond that which he failed to fulfill. In this context, legal liability is not only state coercion, since all law generally has the characteristic of coercion, but also such coercion that, apart from the compulsory performance of the obligation, entails certain negative consequences for the offender. Moreover, these negative consequences in relation to the compulsorily performed obligations of the environmental user are additional¹.

According to Article 75 of the Federal Law "On Environmental Protection," liability for violating legislation in the field of environmental protection is established as property, disciplinary, administrative, and criminal liability in accordance with the law.

The current legislation lacks a definition of legal liability for environmental violations. The corresponding concept is proposed in scientific literature. For example, according to M.M. Brinchuk, legal liability for environmental violations refers to the relationship between the state, represented by authorized bodies in the field of environmental protection, law enforcement agencies, and other authorized subjects, and a person (individual, official, or legal entity) who has committed an environmental violation, regarding the application of appropriate sanctions against the violator².

In the previously applicable Law of the RSFSR dated 19.12.1991 No. 2060-1 "On Environmental Protection," the concept of "environmental violation" was defined as a culpable, unlawful act that violates environmental legislation and causes harm to the surrounding natural environment and human health. As noted by M.M. Brinchuk, an environmental violation is an unlawful, typically culpable act (action or inaction) committed by a legally capable subject, causing ecological damage or creating a real threat of such damage, or violating the rights and legitimate interests of subjects of environmental law³.

Among the characteristics of an environmental legal violation, O.L. Dubovik lists: 1) unlawfulness (general and specific), i.e., the presence of a prohibition on behavior established by a norm of environmental or other legislation; 2) culpability (although Russian and international legislation establish liability without fault for damage caused by a source of increased danger); 3) punishability, i.e., the existence of sanctions for violating prohibitions set out in the law, and bodies (persons) authorized on behalf of the state to apply them; 4) environmental harm, which is manifested in the characteristics of the object of the offense (the environment and other elements and objects related to it); 5) subjectivity as an indication of the status, qualities, properties or affiliation of persons (natural and legal entities) held liable; 6) public danger, reflected primarily by indicating the object and objective side of the offense (consequences); 7) types of offenses (material, formal, endangerment)⁴.

According to the general theory of law, violations are divided into offenses (administrative, disciplinary, civil law violations) and crimes (criminal violations).