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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Ole Pedersen
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2019.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Using an empirical assessment of the use of enforcement undertakings by the Environment Agency and the engagement of the courts with the recently enacted sentencing guidelines for environmental offences, this article argues that the enforcement of environmental law is undergoing significant change. This change manifests itself in an increased reliance on written negotiated agreements in the form of enforcement undertakings by the Environment Agency and a willingness of the courts to hand down significant fines to certain types of polluters. These new dynamics suggest that negotiation continues to play an important role in the enforcement of environmental albeit in a contractualised form. The application of the courts by the sentencing guidelines conversely suggests that environmental offences are no longer trivialised by the courts. Taken together these emerging dynamics not only create specific incentives between agencies and offenders but they also call into question established understandings and perceptions of regulatory enforcement.
Author(s): Pedersen OW
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Law and Society
Year: 2019
Volume: 46
Issue: 1
Pages: 29-54
Print publication date: 01/03/2019
Online publication date: 19/02/2019
Acceptance date: 19/11/2018
Date deposited: 20/11/2018
ISSN (print): 0263-323X
ISSN (electronic): 1467-6478
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12141
DOI: 10.1111/jols.12141
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