Abstract
Environmental issues continue to capture international headlines and remain the subject of intense intellectual, political and public debate. As a result, environmental law is widely recognised as the fastest growing area of international jurisprudence. This, combined with the rapid expansion of environmental agreements and policies, has created a burgeoning landscape of administrative, regulatory and judicial regimes. Emerging from these developments are increases in environmental offences, and more recently environmental crimes. The judicial processing of environmental or ‘green’ crimes is rapidly developing across many jurisdictions. Since 1979, Australia has played a lead role in criminal justice processing of environment offences through the New South Wales Land and Environment Court (NSW LEC). This article draws on case data, observations and interviews with court personnel, to examine the ways in which environmental justice is now administered through the existing court structures, and how it has changed since the Court’s inception.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alier, J. M. (2000). Retrospective environmentalism and environmental justice movements today. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 11(4), 45–50.
Arcioni, E., & Mitchell, G. (2005). Environmental justice in Australia: when the RATS became IRATE. Environmental Politics, 14(3), 363–379. doi:10.1080/09644010500087590.
Axelrod, R., VanDeveer, S., & Downie, D. (2011). The global environment: institutions, law and policy. Washington DC: Congressional Quarterly.
Banks, D., Davies, C., Gosling, J., Newman, J., Rice, M., Wadley, J., et al. (2008). Environmental crime. A threat to our future. London: Environmental Investigation Agency.
Beirne, P., & South, N. (2007). Issues in green criminology: confronting harms against environments, humanity and other animals. Portland: Willan.
Bodansky, D. (2010). The art and craft of international environmental law. Harvard: Harvard Univ Press.
Brisman, A. (2008). Crime-environment relationships and environmental justice. Seattle Journal for Social Justice, 6(2), 727–817.
Bullard, R. D. (1990). Dumping in Dixie: race, class, and environmental quality (Vol. 3). Boulder: Westview Press.
Bullard, R. D., & Wright, B. H. (1993). Environmental justice for all: community perspectives on health and research needs. Toxicology and Industrial Health, 9(5), 821.
Hatzistergos, J. (2010). Attorney General’s opening speech, Paper presented at the Australasian Conference of Planning and Environment Courts and Tribunals (ACPECT), Sydney.
Higgins, D. (2012). Editorial. Environmental Crime Programme News’, www.Interpol.int , (March), 1.
Hoban, T. M., & Brooks, R. O. (1996). Green justice, the environment and the courts. Oxford: Westview Press.
James, B. (2002). Enforce the measures in place, panel urges: judges call for tougher action on environment. International Herald Tribune, (28 August).
Kibert, N. C. (2001). Green justice: a holistic approach to environmental injustice. Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law, 17(1), 169–182.
Land and Environment Court of New South Wales (2009). The Land and Environment Court of NSW. http://www.lec.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/.
Land and Environment Court of New South Wales. (2010). Annual review 2009. Sydney: NSW LEC.
Lipman, Z. (2004). The NSW land and environment court: reforms to the merit review process. Environmental and Planning Law Journal, 21(6), 415–423.
Mattera, P. (2007). Is big business buying out the environmental movement? Corporate Research E-Letter, http://www.corp-research.org/e-letter/big-business-buying-out-environmental-movement.
McDonald, J. M. (2008). Retroactive justice process in case Law. Alternative Law Journal, 33(1), 41–44.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (2012). 3GF Global Green Growth Forum. http://www.globalgreengrowthforum.com/.
NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (EOH) (2012). Biobanking. http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/biobanking/.
Pain, N. (1995). Criminal Law and environment protection- overview of issues and themes. Paper presented at The Environmental Crime Conference, Hobart, 1–3 September 1993.
Pearlman, J. (2000). The Land and Environment Court of New South Wales Paper presented at the Royal Australian Planning Institute Congress 2000 Conference, Sydney, October 3–6.
Pirro, D. E. (2008). Access to environmental justice. Environmental Policy and Law, 38(5), 272.
Pirro, D. E. (2012). The case for an international court of the environment. Rome: International Court of the Environment Foundation.
Preston, B. J. (2011). The use of restorative justice for environmental crime. Criminal Law Journal, 35(3), 136–154.
Preston, B. J. (2011b). Internalising Ecocentrism in Environmental Law Paper presented at the 3rd Wild Law Conference: Earth Jurisprudence—Building Theory and Practice, Griffith University, Queensland, 16–18 September 2011.
Preston, B. J. (2012). Natural justice by the courts: some recent cases. Paper presented at the Land and Environment Court of NSW Annual Conference, Coogee, 17 May 2012.
Pring, G., & Pring, C. (2009). Greening justice, creating and improving environmental courts and tribunals. World Resources Institute: The Access Initiative.
Rackemann DCJ, M. (2010). The Planning and Environment Court of Queensland—A case study. Paper presented at the Symposium on Environmental Decision-making, the Rule of Law and Environmental Justice, Manila, Philippines, 28–29 July 2010.
Ruggiero, V., & South, N. (2010). Critical criminology and crimes against the environment. Critical Criminology, 18(4), 245–250.
Ryan, P. (2002). Court of hope and false expectations: land and environment court 21 years on. Journal of Environmental Law, 14(13), 301–315.
Stein, P. (1995). The role of the NSW Land and Environment Court in environmental crime. In N. Gunningham, J. Norberry, & S. McKillop (Eds). Environmental crime, Hobart September 1993 (pp. 245–258): Australian Institute of Criminology.
Stone, C. (1972). Should trees have standing? Towards legal rights for natural objects. Southern California Review of Law, 45(450), 488–489.
Strang, H., & Braithwaite, J. (2001). Restorative justice and civil society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stubbs, M. (1996). Environmental mediation in planning appeals: lessons from the land and environment court of New South Wales. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 39(2), 273–284.
Tomkins, K. (2005). Police, law enforcement and the environment. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 16(3), 294–306.
Verry, J., Heffernan, F., Fisher, R. (2005). Restorative justice approaches in the context of environmental prosecution. In: Safety, Crime and Justice: from data to policy Conference, 6–7 June, Canberra, 2005 (pp. 6–7): Australian Institute of Criminology.
Viner, A. E. (2011). Environmental Enforcement on the Rise: Practical Tips for Responding to Governmental Requests for Information. http://www.muchshelist.com/knowledge-center/article/environmental-enforcement-rise-practical-tips-responding-governmental-reque.
Walters, R. (2009). Crime and environmental law. In W. Brown, C. Aradau, & J. Budds (Eds.), Earth in crisis? Environmental issues and responses (pp. 321–362). London: Sage.
Walters, R. (2010). Eco crime. In J. Muncie, D. Talbot, & R. Walters (Eds.), Crime: local and global (pp. 173–208). Milton Keynes: Willan-Open University.
Walters, R. (2012). EcoMafia and environmental crime. In K. Carrington, M. Ball, E. O’Brien, & J. Tauri (Eds.), Crime, social democracy and justice. London: Palgrave.
White, R. (2011). Transnational environmental crime: toward an eco-global criminology. Portland: Willan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Walters, R., Westerhuis, D.S. Green crime and the role of environmental courts. Crime Law Soc Change 59, 279–290 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-013-9415-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-013-9415-4