Environment protection in the legal system of Albania: The current situation in Albania on combating environmental crimes and the new reform directions

Abstract

The scope of this article is twofold, on one hand; it makes an analysis of the current situation of the environment protection through the criminal law in the Albania, by proving a legal landscape on the current criminal conducts as are foreseen by the Criminal Code of Albania. It starts with an introduction which aims to highlight the status play of the increased attention that is being shown for the environmental protection in the global arena. Then it makes an assessment on the definition of the environmental harm, and the technical-legal approaches utilised for the protection of the environment. After that, this article makes a description of the legal concept of environment in Albania and analyses the existing criminal offences as they are foreseen by the Criminal Code. On the other hand, the article makes a preliminary assessment of the new coming reform on the environmental crime in Albania, by trying to identify the problematic issues and their address by the draft-law. The conclusions reached at the end shows the evolution of the concept of environment and its protection, welcomes the new reform by noting the need of the judicial authorities to be trained in order to be fully implemented.