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25 Tul. Envtl. L.J. 83 (2011-2012)
The Logic and Limits of Environmental Criminal Law in the Global Setting: Brazil and the United States - Comparisons, Contrasts, and Questions in Search of a Robust Theory

handle is hein.journals/tulev25 and id is 85 raw text is: The Logic and Limits of Environmental
Criminal Law in the Global Setting:
Brazil and the United States-
Comparisons, Contrasts, and Questions in
Search of a Robust Theory
Robert E Blomquist*
Strict, but arguably unfair and counterproductive, systems of criminal environmental law
and enforcement exist in both the United States and Brazil in the twenty-first century In order to
create a sovereignty dividend encompassing the rule of law and evenhanded administrative control
in the competitive global setting, both countries should rethink and reform their respective systems
of environmental criminal law by seeking answers to several questions of legal philosophy in
search ofa robust theory
I.    ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMINAL LAW IN THE UNITED STATES.............. 84
II.   ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMINAL LAW IN BRAZIL .............                 ...... 88
III. THE NORMATIVE FUNCTIONS OF STATE REGULATION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN THE ERA OF SPREADING
GLOBALIZATION             ......................................   ...... 92
IV. CONCLUSION                .......................................... ..... 98
Environmental criminal law is the result of a legal evolutionary
process of transformation in response to the public's desire to have a
legal system that better reflects the public's environmental protection
goals.' Criminalizing environmental infractions and seeking appropriate
sanctions for serious norm violations of a nation's laws that seek to
protect public health and natural resources is a vital role for government
to play in a democratic polity. This is the overarching logic of national
*     0 2011 Robert F. Blomquist. Professor of Law, Valparaiso University School of Law.
B.S. 1973, University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School); J.D. 1977, Cornell University. My
thanks go to Professor Sebastian Elias of the San Andr6s University law faculty in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, for allowing me to present an earlier version of this Article to his class and to other law
faculty in March 2011. My thanks also go to international criminal law expert, Markus D.
Dubber, and to two nationally recognized experts in American environmental criminal law, Walter
D. James and Bruce Pasfield, for helpful comments as this Article was taking shape. My research
assistant, Jon Sichtermann, helped me complete research for this project. As always, my
administrative assistant, Nancy Young, did an excellent job in preparing the manuscript.
I.   Richard J. Lazarus, Meeting the Demands of Integration in the Evolution of
Environmental Law: Reforming Environmental Crininal Law, 83 GEO. L.J. 2407, 2419 (1995).
83

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