Roel Meeus, De arresten nr. 36/2008 en nr. 82/2008 van het Grondwettelijk Hof: het moeilijke onderscheid tussen de grondwettige en ongrondwettige open textuur van strafrechtelijk gesanctioneerde milieuzorgplichtbepalingen [The judgements 36/2008 and 82/2008 of the Constitutional Court: the difficult distinction between a constitutional and unconstitutional environmental duty to care], Tijdschrift voor Milieurecht 2008, 454-472
This article analyzes two rulings of the Belgian Constitutional Court in which a number of criminally enforceable environmental duties to care provided by Flemish environmental legislation were reviewed against the legality principle in criminal law. The issue that arose in these rulings concerned the question whether a vague and open standard such as an environmental duty to care satisfies the requirements of precision and clarity which the legality principle requires for the criminalization of offences. Article 22(2) of the Environmental Licensing Decree and Article 13(1) of the Waste Decree stood the test, whereas the criminalization of breaches of Article 14 of the Conservation Decree was found to be unconstitutional. The analysis takes along earlier rulings by the Court on the legality principle in criminal law.
Full publication (Dutch) here.