Research On RCO Doctrine Of American Environmental Criminal Law

In the United States, RCO doctrine as a fundamental principle was used to determine the direct responsible officer of the company which committed an environmental crime; moreover, in recent years the application of the doctrine had gradually expanded to other legal areas. As we discussed, the intent of application of RCO doctrine was to protect public health, safeguard the public interest and enhance public welfare, so in the early cases RCO doctrine was regarded as the principle of strict liability, which eliminating the prosecutor's burden of proof of mens rea during prosecution; however, with the change of inens rea proofing requirement, the doctrine gradually set itself free from the strict liability limitation, and the applicable conditions were constantly updating as well. The article firstly explained the conception of RCO doctrine, and then elaborated on the origin of such doctrine and two famous American environmental criminal cases in the history, namely United States v. Dotterweich and United States v. Park. Next the article demonstrated in detail the three core elements of RCO doctrine:mens rea, direct responsible officer and responsible relationship; then combined with specific cases, further illustrated the practical application of RCO doctrine in the American environmental criminal law; correspondingly, a piece of simple comments were made after that. Finally, the article talked about some implications from RCO doctrine and hope that there would have real practice on Chinese law.