Study On Criminalization Of Illegal Disposal Of Hazardous Waste

Since the Criminal Law Amendment(VIII)amended the crime of significant environmental pollution accident to the crime of environmental pollution in 2011,the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate successively issued the Interpretation on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Environmental Pollution in 2013 and 2016.In the judicial interpretation,there is no lack of provisions on the crime of illegal disposal of hazardous waste.Nevertheless,in practice,there are still disputes on the conviction of illegal disposal of hazardous waste,and there are also differences in the academic circles on the related issues of the crime of environmental pollution caused by illegal disposal of hazardous waste.This paper selects some representative cases in practice and summarizes the focus problems in the crime of illegal disposal of hazardous waste.There are three main problems as follows: first,the identification of illegal disposal in the crime of environmental pollution.There is no clear definition of disposal behavior in the criminal law and relevant judicial interpretations,which leads to the improper incorporation of illegal collection,transportation and storage of hazardous wastes that are not part of the act of environmental pollution.At the same time,whether the illegal disposal of hazardous waste in a specific space of an enterprise should be included in the regulatory scope of the crime of environmental pollution is also controversial.Most scholars agree to exclude it,but there are different understandings and standards for the exclusion of the crime of environmental pollution and its protective legal interest.Second,whether the hazardous waste belongs to the "articles restricted by laws and administrative regulations" within the regulation scope of the crime of illegal business operation.In practice,some courts have clearly identified hazardous waste as articles restricted from sale,and some courts have even identified hazardous waste as articles for exclusive sale,thus criminalizing and punishing the serious operation behavior of illegal collection and sale of hazardous waste.However,some courts do not recognize that the illegal operation of hazardous waste constitutes the crime of illegal business operation,mainly because the existing laws and administrative regulations do not explicitly stipulate that hazardous waste is the state’s exclusive sale or restricted sale of articles.Third,if hazardous waste is identified as a restricted commodity,from the perspective of infringement of legal interests,there is a problem of the concurrence of the crime of illegal business operation and the crime of environmental pollution in a specific case.In this case,it is necessary to discuss how to use relevant theories and legal basis to evaluate the behavior of the actor.In view of the above first question,this paper summarizes the existing academic research results,and supports to define the semantic scope of disposal according to the provisions of the Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law.At the same time,through the analysis of the environmental legal interest protected by the crime of environmental pollution,this paper argues that the illegal disposal of hazardous waste in the specific space of an enterprise should be excluded from the regulation scope of the crime of environmental pollution,and that the specific space of an enterprise should be strictly recognized.In view of the above-mentioned second question,on the basis of drawing on the relevant research results of scholars,this paper holds that hazardous waste is a kind of articles which should be strictly controlled according to the Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law and the Measures for the management of hazardous waste business license,articles that belong to the provisions of laws and administrative regulations that restrict the sale and purchase of goods.Illegal business operations such as collection,sale and disposal of hazardous waste without permission,if the circumstances are serious,shall be regulated by the crime of illegal business operations;at the same time,Article 225(1)of the Criminal Law shall be clearly taken as the legal basis in the judgment documents,it is beneficial to promote the exertion of criminal law function.In view of the above-mentioned third question,this article holds that the environmental pollution crime and the illegal business operation crime protect the different legal interests,in the case of the concurrence of the two crimes,we should fully evaluate the behavior of the criminal according to the concrete facts of the case,in order to realize the explicit function of concurrence of crimes,do not aggravate the penalty of the offender,also can’t indulge crime.Based on the case study,this paper believes that that we should make full use of the existing legislative and judicial resources so as to block the chain of interests at the source and curb the criminal activities of illegal disposal of hazardous waste when the disposal capacity of hazardous waste is insufficient,can also carry out the basic principles of the Criminal Law.This article has reference value for the judicial practice and related academic research of the crime of illegal disposal of hazardous waste.