Sosnovsky, V.V. International legal and national aspects of the protection of lands by the means of criminal law. Review on the book by O.V. Vorontsova. “Legal responsibility for spoiling lands. (Ed. O.L. Dubovik, Syktyvkar, KRASTiU, 2012, 175 p.)

Abstract: Protection of lands (soils) is one of the most topical problems, which is faced by both the states and the international community. The global environmental crisis shows itself not only in climate change, lessinging biological variety, pollution of the athmosphere and the waters, excessive waste, etc., but also in degradation and pollution of lands due to intensifying industrial and agricultural production, technogenous catastrophes and accidents. It considerably lowers the living standards of the people, and it becomes an important element in the general set of negative influences on the environment as a whole and on the specific ecosystems. That is why professional lawyers, environmentalists and economists of many states strive to find the most efficient means in order to avoid the further worsening of the lands (soils) and to improve their quality. One of such means is legal responsibilty. Currently many states implement measures of civil law responsibility, which include compensation of harm, fines and other administrative legal sanctions. Criminal prohibitions take a special space within this framework, since they represent the strictest reaction to the violation of laws on the soil and land protection.

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