Abstract
This LL.M. thesis provides a comprehensive examination of criminal enforcement of environmental laws in the United States, tracing the historical development of criminal provisions from common law nuisance origins through modern statutes such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and sentencing guidelines like the Sentencing Reform Act and Criminal Fines Improvement Act. The work analyzes the public welfare offense doctrine and its impact on mens rea requirements, examining varied standards of liability, including strict liability, "knowing" violations, knowing endangerment, and wilfulness or negligence, as well as corporate liability and individual employee liability through the responsible corporate officer doctrine as expressed in United States v. Dotterwich and United States v. Park. It also addresses the applicability of non-environmental criminal statutes, such as conspiracy, fraud, aiding and abetting, and RICO, in environmental prosecutions. The thesis concludes with a critique of statutory culpability ambiguity and a call for Congress to enact environmental criminal sanctions with clearly defined degrees of mens rea.
Repository Citation
Krishnan, Ramasamy, "Criminal Enforcement of U.S. Environmental Laws" (1995). LLM Theses and Essays. 340.
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/stu_llm/340