The Influence of Directive 2008/99/EC on the Harmonization and Renewal of the Lexicon of Environmental Criminal Law

According to recent developments of European law, the phenomenon of the “flow of concepts in a multilingual world” can be examined with reference to environmental criminal law. In this field Directive 2008/99/EC can serve as a benchmark against which measure progress towards the creation of genuinely “European” criminal law. The discrepancies between the terminology of the European legislator and the national legal lexicon are worth noting because they imply the introduction of several innovations in Italian criminal law, which may be considered from the following four perspectives: (a) terminological issues; (b) terminological issues with structural implications; (c) categories of criminal law; (d) principles of criminal law.