Evaluation of the Criminal Policy Governing the Creation of Clean Air

Abstract

After 22 years since the enactment of the Law on the Prevention of Air Pollution, the legislator approved the Clean Air Act. However, despite this new law and the rectification of the shortcomings of the former legislation, air pollution remains a persistent issue. This indicates that either the criminal policy underlying the legislation in this field has been inadequate or that the responsible institutions have not effectively fulfilled their assigned duties. Accordingly, this article examines the criminal policy embedded in the Law on the Prevention of Air Pollution alongside the criminal policy reflected in the Clean Air Act. Through this comparative analysis, it has been concluded that the legal aspects envisioned in the new law have been more precisely elaborated than in the previous statute. Moreover, in terms of criminal protection, the legislator—while considering the interplay between criminal and non-criminal interventions—has approached criminal intervention instrumentally, incorporating it in a detailed manner through multiple provisions and criminalizations. Nevertheless, certain elements, such as the removal of imprisonment penalties, remain open to criticism. The fundamental reason for the inefficacy of this law, however, lies in the fact that the legislator has merely emphasized the participation of the Environmental Protection Organization with other non-public institutions, all of which are affiliated with the government. This approach has, in practice, challenged the guarantee of enjoying clean air, since such participation has been neglected due to the dependency and subordination of these organizations and institutions to a single entity.