Vladan Joldžić1
Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research, Belgrade, Serbia Ana Batrićević2
Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research, Belgrade, Serbia Vera Stanković3
Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research, Belgrade, Serbia Nikola Paunović4
Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research, Belgrade, Serbia and PhD candidate, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Law
OBJECTIVES
This research provides an insight into negative environmental impacts of technological and industrial development causing the pollution of eco-mediums, with focus on local communities in Serbia. It delivers a critical analysis of national and international legislation pertinent to sustainable development and environment protection on local level, accompanied by suggestions to improve current state reaction to ecologically irresponsible behavior in Serbia.
METHODOLOGY
Content analysis was used to explore official reports on current state of environment in Serbia. It provided information about major environmental issues in local communities and about the entities whose ecologically irresponsible conduct caused these problems. Content analysis was also applied on the statistics about the number of reported, accused and condemned perpetrators of criminal offences against environment. It was applied in order to estimate the phenomenology, and scope of criminal offences against environment and to
1 PhD, Principle Research Fellow, e-mail: [email protected] 2 PhD, Research Fellow, e-mail: [email protected] 3 MsC, Research Assistant, e-mail: [email protected] 4 Research Intern, e-mail: [email protected]
assess the quality of state reaction to ecologically irresponsible activities in Serbia. Doctrinal legal research method was used to analyse the provisions of international and national legislation relevant to the protection of environment in the context of sustainable development. Comparative legal research method was applied to examine representative international legal provisions that can be considered guidelines for the improvement of national legislation.
RESULTS
Unsustainable technological development produces negative environmental impacts affecting local communities in Serbia. National legislative framework for the prevention of ecologically irresponsible conduct is solid, but not completely harmonized with international standards. A small number of environmental criminal offences are reported and the imposed punishments are mild. There are few comprehensive reports on environmental issues in the context of sustainable development on municipal level.
IMPLICATIONS
The study suggests that policy makers, researchers and practitioners should dedicate much more attention to environmental protection when creating plans related to industrial, agricultural, and technological development and include the representatives of local communities in the entire decision-making process. It also implies that harmonization with international standards on ecologically sustainable development and more efficient enforcement of environmental legal provisions should be provided.
ORIGINALITY VALUE
The paper highlights key environmental issues emerging as the results of ecologically irresponsible and unsustainable industrial, agricultural and technological development, affecting local communities in Serbia. It analyses legal mechanism for the prevention of these problems on national and international level. It also offers suggestions for the improvement of quality and efficiency of state reaction to environmentally irresponsible acts and its harmonization with international standards.
KEY WORDS
Sustainability, environment, ecology, local community, development, environmental law, environmental crime, responsibility
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