A recent decision by the Court of Cassation offers the opportunity to reflect upon the issue of the so-called environmental crimes and their similarity to crimes related to health and safety at work. At the moment, notwithstanding the parallels between the two categories of offence, companies facing environmental crimes have to deal with an uncertain regulatory framework full of loopholes, and have to work alone to reduce the risk of alleged crime. The presence of assessable certification standards, already existent for health and safety, may lead the legislator to make use of the latter in order to render operations relating to environmental crimes less difficult.
An analysis by Chiara Colamonico and Giuseppe Taddeo, Macchi di Cellere Gangemi Law Firm.