Deliberative Democracy and Environmental Law Enforcement

The essay aims to evaluate whether deliberative democracy could inspire strategies appropriate to improve the enforcement of environmental law, making it more effective: especially when competing interests are simultaneously relevant (e.g. health and environment to one side; employment to the other side) and the regulation needs a deep evaluation to balance the protection of natural resources and other values. Furthermore, a deliberative approach can foster community participation in the risk management, in order to involve the citizens in prevention strategies and to consider criminal sanctions actually as the extrema ratio. Several aspects about the implementation of deliberative strategies and instruments are critically discussed, also presenting pertinent case studies and emphasizing the more controversial points.