Origins of environmental criminal law "A comparative perspective" :-
In the broader global context, the emergence of the environmental criminal law and, hence, that of the notion of environmental crime , is directly linked to the very appearance of environmental law.

In other words, environmental crimes and environmental criminal law were initially by-products of environmental regulation as legislators relied primarily on criminal law for the enforcement of newly established standards of environmental protection.

This early and intimate connection between environmental and criminal law is not a uniquely European phenomenon, but existed equally in other Western jurisdictions, such as the United States.

The early environmental crimes had two specific features : They only occupied a marginal place in domestic criminal law systems; and, within the European continental administrative law traditions with a structural reliance on criminal law for the enforcement of the environmental crimes were initially limited to penalizing non-compliance with administrative obligations (regulatory crimes).