Carole M. Billiet, Thomas Blondiau & Sandra Rousseau, Milieucriminaliteit in het beleid van de strafrechter. Bestraffen tussen Haus en Brundtland [Environmental crime in the criminal judge’s policy. Punishing between Haus and Brundtland], Rechtskundig Weekblad 2010-2011, 898-931
In Belgium and Europe there exists a growing tendency to organize environmental law sanctioning within a two-track model that combines penal and administrative sanctioning. The idea is that both sanctioning tracks should complete and support each other. But what are, in Belgium, the main policy lines that the criminal courts have been drawing within the very wide margins of discretion provided by the common criminal law and the special environmental crime law? What is the criminal punishment policy administrative penalization has to offer a complement to? What are the factors determining fine levels, ‘making’ leniency and severity in punishment? The question is researched using an econometric analysis (regression analysis) of the 1156 judgments (1034 first instance judgments and 122 appeal judgments) that form the environmental crime case law in the years 2003- 2006 (2007) within the judicial resort of the Court of Appeal of Gent.
Full publication (Dutch) here.