Billiet & Rousseau, 2013

Carole M. Billiet & Sandra Rousseau. Milieucriminaliteit: waardering van wederrechtelijk verworven vermogensvoordelen [Environmental crime: assessing illegal benefits], Rechtskundig Weekblad 2012-13, 482-499

Assessing illegal benefits remains a challenge for public prosecutors, judges, lawyers and defendants. This paper analyses how criminal justice handles the assessment challenge with regard to different types of environmental offences and what assessment solutions developed at first instance level survive rather well or poorly in appeal. It appears that only one in four first instance assessments is endorsed at the appeal level, a disturbingly low fraction. The trouble lies with the assessment of illegal income, not with the assessment of avoided costs, another type of illegal benefits. The study uses unpublished first instance and appeal case law of the judicial resort of the Court of Appeal of Gent (2003-2007) and is interdisciplinary, bringing together legal, economic and Law & economics expertise.

Full publication (Dutch) here.