The Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law. Preliminary Remarks

Starting from the reports presented during the 6th annual Conference of the European Environmental Law Forum in the sessions dedicated to the role of criminal law in the protection of the environment, the essay focuses on three points: 1) the environment as a “worthy” and “needy” good for criminal protection; 2) the relation between Directive 2008/99/EC and the criminal law legality principle; 3) the environment as a changing concept in criminal law comparative perspective.