Over last decades the economic and business development as well as the accelerated industrialization and technical and technological progress coupled with the application of the new technologies and integration of all countries in European and global business, economic and traffic flows, based primarily on technological and scientific achievements gave rise to a particular level and degree of contamination of the main natural resources of the living world. Moreover, the need was identified that aforementioned changes and processes should have been regulated through legal provisions as a part of the overall social system. This system of legal norms is supposed to determine the prerequisites, avenues, mechanisms and criteria for the utilization of new technologies, which are deemed necessary for economic and social development of each particular country, as well as for the progress of all mankind, as such. The anticipated legal system should further lead to reduction or limitation of modes of contamination or forms of endangering the environment fully or just partially, or in other words it should provide “sustainable development”.
Due to the great importance of regulating, improving and protecting the environment, either concerning all its aspects or just some of them (water, air, soil, flora and fauna), the international community through a number of international (under the auspices of UN) or regional (Council of Europe and European Union) legal acts established the legal standards in the given field, that had to be implemented by certain countries, including the Republic of Serbia, into respective national legislations as an attribute of the rule of law states. It is the foundation for determination of the Republic of Serbia as the state that strongly protects the principle of sustainable development. This paper actually deals with methods and forms of the incriminations, which either endanger or violate the environment fully or just some of its aspects in comparative criminal law.Ekonomski i privredni razvoj poslednjih decenija kao i ubrzana industrijalizacija i tehničko tehnološki napredak uz primenu novih tehnologija i povezivanje svih zemalja u evropske i svetske ekonomske, privredne, saobraćajne i druge tokove zasnovanim, u prvom redu, na dostignućima tehnike i nauke doveo je do određenog stepena i nivoa zagađenosti osnovnih prirodnih resursa živog sveta. To je nametnulo potrebu da sva ova zbivanja i promene moraju biti obuhvaćene i sadržajem određenog sistema pravnih normi kao dela ukupnog društvenog sistema. Taj bi sistem pravnih normi utvrdio uslove, način, postupke i kriterijume za korišćenje novih tehnologija bez čega nema privrednog i društvenog razvoja svake pojedine zemlje, kao i napretka celog čovečansta, ali koji bi doveo do smanjenja ili ograničenja oblika i vidova zagađenja ili ugrožavanja životne sredine u celini ili pojedinih njenih segmenata, odnosno koji bi doveo do ‘’održivog razvoja’’.
Upravo zbog velikog značaja uređivanja, unapređenja i zaštite životne sredine u celosti ili pojedinih njenih segmenata : vode, vazduha, zemljišta, flore i faune i međunarodna zajednica je putem više univerzalnih (pod okriljem OUN) ili regionalnih (Savet Evrope i Evropska unija) pravnih akata postavila pravne standarde u ovoj oblasti koje su pojedine zemlje, pa tako i naša zemlja, dužne da inplementiraju u svoje nacionalno zakonodavstvo kao jedan od atributa pravne države. To je osnova za određenje Srbije kao države u kojoj se čvrsto štiti princip održivog razvoja. Upravo o načinu i obliku inkriminacija kojima se ugrožava ili povređuje životna sredina u celosti ili njeni pojedini segmenti u uporednom krivičnom zakonodavstvu govori ovaj rad
