La responsabilité pénale des sociétés canadiennes pour les crimes contre l’environnement survenus à l’étranger
Due to trade liberalization, multinational enterprises (MNEs) are overwhelmingly engaged in developing countries’ industries. Unfortunately, many of those MNEs pay scant attention to environmental preservation. Yet, almost all developing countries lack effective rules designed to protect the environment from polluting activities operated by MNEs. In the absence of any incentive, it is impossible for MNEs to avoid environmentally harmful operations. As economic agents, MNEs are not willing to adopt environmental protection costs without any legislation compelling them to do so. The profit maximization rationale underlying corporate policy leaves little room for incurring environmental preservation costs and only voluntary measures are applied in the management of polluting operations. As a general principle, the regulation of MNEs’ conduct falls upon the State whose territory is directly harmed by polluting operations. However, the lack of resources of developing countries as well as the financial influence of MNEs has weakened environmental protection regulation in many states. The preservation of the environment from polluting activities of MNEs has also undermined by the lack of political will of developing countries which is increased by the corruption phenomenon. Despite the large number of international treaties and conventions designed to protect the environment from pollutant threats, those international instruments cannot directly apply to MNEs as they are non-state actors. Hence, developed countries, under whose law many MNEs are incorporated, are required to fill this gap in regulating their MNEs’ activities abroad. This dissertation suggests the examination of juridical mechanisms by which environmental crimes which take place in developing countries may trigger criminal prosecution in Canada. Given the absence of Canadian regulation dealing explicitly with extraterritorial criminal conduct of MNEs, this research seeks to provide a new approach to existing law in order to deal with transnational environmental crimes, bearing in mind that environmental protection has emerged as a fundamental value in Canadian society. Nowadays, the values represented by environmental protection entail the shift of the traditional territoriality principle since worldwide economic activities have brought transnational threats of global concern. Therefore, we hold that Canada would be entitled to extend its competence so as to assert jurisdiction over environmental crimes occurred abroad during operations conducted by Canadian citizens. The need to assert extraterritorial jurisdiction to environmental crimes committed within foreign sovereignty becomes more pressing if those crimes reach the same level of gravity as international crimes.
Corporate Criminal Liability Environmental Crimes Extraterritorial Jurisdiction