Environmental crimes in a transnational context. Topical issues of international environmental disputes as a risk of threat to the world legal order. Giorgi Matiashvili
their chemical composition, placed in jeopardy the mechanism of self-purification of the World Ocean that had been formed for thousands of years. Environmental law prohibits or restricts releasing into the World Ocean of the following substances:
1) Oil and oil products.
Their long decay period and spread over large surfaces represents particular danger. So, in November 2002, the tanker “Prestige” sank in the coasts of Spain, and more than 500 kilometers of the coast were poisoned with oil. The Prime Minister of Spain stated, that the country faces the largest ecological disaster in its history. The generated oil patches were not liquidated for a long time, causing significant damage to the aquatic biological resources of the Atlantic.
2) Synthetic products
This includes all types of plastic materials, including synthetic ropes, fishing nets, and plastic bags for trash. Their danger is in their exceptional floatability.
3) Poisonous substances
Substances containing organochlorine compounds, quicksilver, cadmium and materials for biological and chemical warfare.
4) Radioactive materials
International environmental law restricts dumping and disposal of radioactive waste material.
Outer space
Outer Space – means the space, located outside the earth atmosphere. The economic use of outer space is still limited by the technical capabilities of humankind. Though, the international community has already faced the problem of protecting the above-mentioned object from the so-called “space rubbish”. Its accumulation in near-Earth orbits (adjacent space) can make it impossible for mankind to go further into outer space. Although, it is impossible to do without the use of nuclear energy in space exploration, international environmental law limits the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space. In this regard, the ecological immunity of some outer space objects has been established.
The ecological immunity of some objects of outer space is withdrawal from economic activity of objects that are the common property of mankind. In relation to space, environmental immunity extends to such a celestial body as the Moon.
Objects of the common heritage of humankind
Objects of the common heritage of humankind are territories that are not under the sovereignty of any state and having environmental immunity. These include: Antarctic and the Moon.
&5 Hostile use of means of environmental impact and intentional environmental pollution
The public danger of ecological crimes lies in the fact that it encroaches on a person through nature, through the destruction or qualitative deterioration of the biological basis of his/her existence. Some European countries have joined to the Convention “On the Protection of the Environment” through the criminal legislation that they have developed in their country.
Ecological crimes are criminal infringements on environmental safety, that is, the safety of the surrounding natural environment as a condition and means of human habitation and living organisms, and, in principle, their survival.
That is, ecological crimes violate the human right to a healthy ambient environment.
The specific object of this group of crimes is public relations for the rational use of natural resources, the preservation of a natural environment favorable for human-beings and other living beings and the provision of environmental law and order and the safety of the population.
The direct objects of the ecological crimes are public relations for the protection and rational use of certain types of natural resources and ensuring the environmental safety of the population.
Based on the direct object, ecological crimes are divided into two types.
1) Ecological crimes are of a general nature. They encroach on nature as a whole. These include:
– Violation of the rules of environmental protection in the course of work;
– Violation of the rules for the handling of environmentally hazardous substances and waste;
– Violation of safety rules when handling microbiological or other biological agents or toxins;
– Violation of veterinary rules and the rules, established for the control of plant diseases and pests;
2) Special ecological crimes that encroach on individual components or components of nature (air, water and so on). These include:
– Water pollution;
– Air pollution;
– Pollution of the marine environment,
– Violation of the legislation on the continental shelf of the country and on the exclusive economic zone of the country;
– Damage to the earth;
– Violation of the rules for the protection and use of subsoil;
– Illegal harvesting of aquatic animals and plants;
– Violation of the rules for the protection of fish stocks;
– Illegal hunting;
– Destruction of populations of organisms specified in the Red List;
– Illegal chopping of wood;
– Destruction or damage to forests;
– Violation of the regime of specially protected natural areas and natural objects;
The subject of these crimes is the ambient environment itself and its most significant components: land, subsoil, forests and plant kingdom in general, wildlife, water, atmospheric air, continental shelf, marine environment, specially protected natural areas and objects.
The specificity of the formulation of environmental criminal law prohibitions is the high level of their blankness. In this regard, in order to specify the content of a particular criminal law norm on ecological crimes, it is necessary to refer to many legislative and other normative acts.
The concretization of some criminal law prohibitions in the countries is carried out with the attraction of international treaties in the field of ecology (for example, in case of pollution of the marine environment – the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter of 1972).
Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, ETS No. 172 (Strasbourg, 4 November 1998);
In December 2019, the International Criminal Court in the Hague received an application from the Ambassador of Vanuatu in the European Union (EU) / proposing to make the destruction of nature a criminal offence.
&5.1 Eco-terrorism /environmental terrorism
At the beginning of the 21st century, in the structure of political and environmental risks, taking into account global trends- special attention should be paid to such a specific phenomenon, such as ecological terrorism, depicting a huge variety of forms, means and methods of commitment, as well as subjects and objects. Its forms include ecocide, environmental colonialism and others.
Eco-terrorism – it is an act of violence on dangerous objects in the context of ecology. From this point of view, hazardous facilities include all types of power station plants, production of the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear ammunitions, chemical, petrochemical and oil refining, metallurgical, biotechnical enterprises, storage facilities for their raw materials and products;
oil and gas and ammonia pipelines, as well as military facilities, containing radioactive and toxic substances, their storage facilities and waste deposits.
The main part of such facilities is located in the port-industrial zones of port cities, in large cities and densely populated areas, creating a constant threat of environmental disasters. Eco-terrorism is the intimidation of people