Challenges ahead of codification of environmental crime indices as an international crime

Today, the environment and addressing various aspects of its conservation and protection, whether in the national aspect or in the international dimensions, are one of the important issues of each society. Although in the past decades the international community attempted to prevent environmental damage by ratifying international instruments and encouraging states to pass civil and criminal law in their national law, up to the present time none of them has solved any of the current problems. Therefore, the need for environmental criminalization at the international level is seriously felt. However, there are challenges which have made the process of environmental criminalization happen at a lower speed. The present study defines environmental crime and its different kinds and discusses the inefficiency of the present international instruments in prevention and reduction of environmental damage, and it finally identifies and introduces the challenges in the way of indices codification of environmental criminalization as an international crime and tries to explain reasons for the failure of the international community to introduce environmental crime as the fifth international crime.

Keywords
Criminalization challenges; Environmental crime; International crime; International instruments