IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i14p7886-d594454.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Opening a Path towards Sustainable Corporate Behaviour: Public Participation in Criminal Environmental Proceedings

Author

Listed:
  • Pavel Kotlán

    (Department of Business Economy and Law, PRIGO University, 736 01 Havířov, Czech Republic)

  • Alena Kozlová

    (Department of Business Economy and Law, PRIGO University, 736 01 Havířov, Czech Republic)

  • Zuzana Machová

    (Department of Business Economy and Law, PRIGO University, 736 01 Havířov, Czech Republic)

Abstract

Establishing criminal liability for environmental offences remains daunting, particularly with regard to the ‘no plaintiff—no judge’ element as a result of which the public seems to be ultimately deprived of the possibility to participate in criminal environmental proceedings. While there is arguably a lack of specific instruments at the European Union (EU) level which would prescribe such legal obligation on the part of the State, there has been a shift in understanding the role of the public and its participation in criminal liability cases, namely under the auspices of the so-called effective investigation and the concept of rights of victims in general. Using the example of the Czech Republic as a point of reference, this article aims to assess the relevant legal developments at both EU and Czech levels to illustrate why the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), essentially acting as public agents, should be granted an active role in environmental criminal proceedings. After examining the applicable legal framework and case law development, the article concludes that effective investigation indeed stands as a valid legal basis for human rights protection which incorporates an entitlement to public participation. Despite that, this pro-active shift is far from being applied in practice, implying that the legislation remains silent where it should be the loudest, and causing unsustainable behaviour of companies.

Suggested Citation

  • Pavel Kotlán & Alena Kozlová & Zuzana Machová, 2021. "Opening a Path towards Sustainable Corporate Behaviour: Public Participation in Criminal Environmental Proceedings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-18, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7886-:d:594454
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7886/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7886/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Włodzimierz Sroka & Richard Szántó, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics in Controversial Sectors: Analysis of Research Results," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 14(3), pages 111-126.
    2. Farrow, Katherine & Grolleau, Gilles & Ibanez, Lisette, 2017. "Social Norms and Pro-environmental Behavior: A Review of the Evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 1-13.
    3. Muhammad Khalid Anser & Zhihe Zhang & Lubna Kanwal, 2018. "Moderating effect of innovation on corporate social responsibility and firm performance in realm of sustainable development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 799-806, September.
    4. Yun Wang & Yanxi Li & Zhuang Ma & Jinbo Song, 2019. "The Deterrence Effect of a Penalty for Environmental Violation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Taylor Davis & Erin P. Hennes & Leigh Raymond, 2018. "Cultural evolution of normative motivations for sustainable behaviour," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(5), pages 218-224, May.
    6. Taylor Davis & Erin P. Hennes & Leigh Raymond, 2018. "Publisher Correction: Cultural evolution of normative motivations for sustainable behaviour," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(7), pages 375-375, July.
    7. Christopher D. H. Wilson & Ian David Williams & Simon Kemp, 2012. "An Evaluation of the Impact and Effectiveness of Environmental Legislation in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: Experiences from the UK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 141-156, March.
    8. Dixon, Robert & Mousa, Gehan A. & Woodhead, Anne, 2005. "The Role of Environmental Initiatives in Encouraging Companies to Engage in Environmental Reporting," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 702-716, December.
    9. Farrow, Katherine & Grolleau, Gilles & Ibanez, Lisette, 2017. "Social Norms and Pro-environmental Behavior: A Review of the Evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 1-13.
    10. Lucia Maciková & Marián Smorada & Peter Dorčák & Benjamin Beug & Peter Markovič, 2018. "Financial Aspects of Sustainability: An Evidence from Slovak Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carla Mingolla & Liselot Hudders & Veroline Cauberghe, 2020. "Framing Descriptive Norms as Self-Benefit Versus Environmental Benefit: Self-Construal’s Moderating Impact in Promoting Smart Energy Devices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Bartels, Lara & Kesternich, Martin, 2022. "Motivate the crowd or crowd- them out? The impact of local government spending on the voluntary provision of a green public good," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-040, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Grolleau, Gilles & Ibanez, Lisette & Mzoughi, Naoufel, 2020. "Moral judgment of environmental harm caused by a single versus multiple wrongdoers: A survey experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    4. Ming, Yaxin & Deng, Huixin & Wu, Xiaoyue, 2022. "The negative effect of air pollution on people's pro-environmental behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 72-87.
    5. Maccarrone, Giovanni & Marini, Marco A. & Tarola, Ornella, 2023. "Shop Until You Drop: the Unexpected Effects of Anticonsumerism and Environmentalism," FEEM Working Papers 330384, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    6. Karoline Gamma & Robert Mai & Moritz Loock, 2020. "The Double-Edged Sword of Ethical Nudges: Does Inducing Hypocrisy Help or Hinder the Adoption of Pro-environmental Behaviors?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 351-373, January.
    7. Falk, Armin & Boneva, Teodora & Chopra, Felix, 2021. "Fighting Climate Change: the Role of Norms, Preferences, and Moral Values," CEPR Discussion Papers 16343, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Phu Nguyen-Van & Anne Stenger & Tuyen Tiet, 2021. "Social incentive factors in interventions promoting sustainable behaviors: A meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-27, December.
    9. Carolin V. Zorell, 2020. "Nudges, Norms, or Just Contagion? A Theory on Influences on the Practice of (Non-)Sustainable Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-21, December.
    10. Castro-Santa, Juana & Drews, Stefan & Bergh, Jeroen van den, 2023. "Nudging low-carbon consumption through advertising and social norms," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    11. Jana Eßer & Manuel Frondel & Stephan Sommer, 2023. "Soziale Normen und der Emissionsausgleich bei Flügen: Evidenz für deutsche Haushalte [Social Norms and Flight Emission Offsets: Evidence for German Households]," AStA Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistisches Archiv, Springer;Deutsche Statistische Gesellschaft - German Statistical Society, vol. 17(1), pages 71-99, March.
    12. Gkargkavouzi, Anastasia & Halkos, George & Matsiori, Steriani, 2019. "How do motives and knowledge relate to intention to perform environmental behavior? Assessing the mediating role of constraints," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Alper Ozpinar, 2023. "A Hyper-Integrated Mobility as a Service (MaaS) to Gamification and Carbon Market Enterprise Architecture Framework for Sustainable Environment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-22, March.
    14. Welsch, Heinz, 2021. "How climate-friendly behavior relates to moral identity and identity-protective cognition: Evidence from the European social surveys," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    15. Leonhard K. Lades & Kate Laffan & Till O. Weber, 2020. "Do economic preferences predict pro-environmental behaviour?," Working Papers 202003, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    16. Chen, Shihua & Chen, Yulin & Jebran, Khalil, 2021. "Trust and corporate social responsibility: From expected utility and social normative perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 518-530.
    17. Coisnon, Thomas & Rousselière, Damien & Rousselière, Samira, 2018. "Information on biodiversity and environmental behaviors: a European study of individual and institutional drivers to adopt sustainable gardening practices," Working Papers 272611, Institut National de la recherche Agronomique (INRA), Departement Sciences Sociales, Agriculture et Alimentation, Espace et Environnement (SAE2).
    18. Marco Vincenzi, 2023. "Mapping the empirical relationship between environmental performance and social preferences: Evidence from macro data," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2023(1), pages 85-102.
    19. Danuta Miłaszewicz, 2022. "Survey Results on Using Nudges for Choice of Green-Energy Supplier," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, April.
    20. Yongliang Yang & Yuting Zhu & Xiaopeng Wang & Yi Li, 2022. "The Perception of Environmental Information Disclosure on Rural Residents’ Pro-Environmental Behavior," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-22, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7886-:d:594454. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.