The Causality in Environmental Crimes in the Light of Vicarious Criminal Responsibility; Challenges and Approaches.

The environment is the most prominent concern of human in the 21st century. Environmental challenges and crises are so continuous and pervasive that the intervention of criminal law in this regard is inevitable. Borrowing criminal liability in such a way that the responsibility for the behavior of polluters or those who destroy the environment can be placed on the perpetrators is one of the most important solutions for the development of criminal law intervention in the protection of the environment. Vicarious criminal liability in such a way that the responsibility for the behavior of polluters or those who destroy the environment can be placed on the perpetrators is one of the most important solutions for the development of criminal law intervention in the protection of the environment. However, the main challenge of this article is about the relationship between causality in environmental crimes and the borrowing of criminal responsibility. Environmental crimes have four key features compared to other crimes: extent in terms of the perpetrator, diversity in terms of behavior, dynamics in terms of results and relativity in terms of consequences. These four characteristics directly affect and challenge causality between behavior and outcome.