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Recent New Zealand Efforts To Combat Environmental Crime

NCJ Number
161921
Journal
Criminal Law Forum Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: (1995) Pages: 389-404
Author(s)
J R Billington
Date Published
1995
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The use of the traditional criminal law to protect the environment and the enactment of specific environmental legislation providing for substantial penalties represent two departures from New Zealand's previous approach, which relied on modest fines and was perceived as little more than license fees or costs of doing business.
Abstract
A prosecution initiated in 1990 and tried on indictment in Wellington in 1992 provides a precedent for the prosecution of a corporate offender and its principal officers for environmental crime as a conspiracy to defraud. Contrary to some North American cases, the Walters case indicates a role for traditional criminal law in protecting the environment and suggests that a corporation and its directors could be indicted jointly for a conspiracy to defraud the public of New Zealand by the commission of an environmental crime. Three New Zealand environmental laws also contain penal sanctions. These are the National Parks Act of 1980, the Conservation Act of 1987, and the Resource Management Act of 1991. Penalties include imprisonment. The Court of Appeals statement in the Walters case suggests that the trend in New Zealand is likely to be the imprisonment of offenders convicted of environmental offenses. Footnotes