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The wide range of directives and regulations of the European Union on the protection of environment is based on several principles, traditionally divided into two groups: the principles of environmental policy and the principles of implementation of measures aiming to protect the environment. The former are the principles of sustainable development and high protection of the environment, while the latter the principle of subsidiarity and proportionality, principle of environmental integration, precautionary principle, principle of prevention, the principle of rectification of environmental damage at its source and the "polluter pays" principle. In this paper the subject of analysis are only the principles of environmental policy. The content of the notion of sustainable development is not outlined in the primary and secondary sources of EU law, but in political acts of international and community origin. It is defined as development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The basic problem in the interpretation of this concept is to indentify standards based on which given activities may be considered as development compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and to project such potential needs. The principle of high level of protection of the environment is not easier to interpret either. The elements of its content that seems to be undisputed and generally recognized is that it should not to be interpreted as the highest possible level of protection, on the one hand, and that it should be determined according to standards adopted by countries that have more developed environmental protection, preferably, but not necessarily members of the European Union, on the other. The greatest insufficiency of both principles, which virtually compromises their legal nature and hence hinders implementation of direct legal sanctions, is that they, besides ecological, comprise economic and social considerations as well. The author approves the standpoint adopted in literature that by elimination of economic and social considerations from notions of sustainable development and high level protection of the environment, or at least by a decrease in their importance, and a strengthening of ecological considerations, these principle might become legal rules with direct legal sanctions, i.e. the Court of Justice might annul directives and regulations not in compliance with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, there has been a growing interest for the concept of sustainable development. The interest for this concept was spurred by challenges facing the modern world, such as global warming, the ozone layer depletion, frequent natural disasters (tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and the like), and increased environmental pollution, but also a growing awareness of the importance of environmental protection. The concept of sustainable development includes three elements: economic, social, and environmental element. This paper specifically addresses the implementation of the environmental component of sustainable development in Montenegro. The emphasized fact is that, although Montenegro declared itself an ecological state, the concept of sustainable development is applied more or less on paper only. Therefore, the paper offers concrete recommendations for promoting the concept of sustainable development in Montenegro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of the concept of sustainable development and environmental resources at the international, regional, and national levels is one of the main tasks of a planned environmental policy. A significant number of foreign authors based their entire scientific work in theoretical framing, constructing, and improving the necessary level of sustainable development, and improving environmental resources. The emergence and development of theoretical orientations also produced results on the normative level, towards the adoption of a number of international instruments. In addition to thematic reviews of theoretical and normative aspects, this paper apostrophizes the possibilities of criminal-legal protection of environmental resources in the light of existing legislation. The paper includes research of the practice, scope, and dynamics of environmental crimes and the respective punishment from 2006 through 2010. For this five-year period, it is possible to properly consider penal policy against environmental crimes and draw valid conclusions that will confirm or disprove the initial hypothesis, which states: "More lenient penal policies of courts of justice reduce the possibility of criminal-legal protection of the environment". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every nation, no matter how poor, will find it iv, its own national interest to assert public control over some facets of the relation between its economy and natural environment. Many economists would prefer to see the analysis of prospective environmental policy integrated in the benefit-cost framework as a way of checking on the economic rationality of political decision. In the economic analysis of law, much attention has been paid to the instruments to be used for the control of environmental pollution. The combination of environmental legal doctrine and law and economics has a huge potential. However, the historic evolution clearly shows and increasing reliance on criminal law as an instrument of environmental policy. The polluter-pays principle stipulates that the person who damages the environment must bear the cost of such damage. A number of developing countries and countries in transition have recently extended this principle to create an obligation on the state to compensate the victims of the environmental harm. The EU is a successful example how to implement policies of sustainable development and environmental protection on the supranational level. The example of the EU shows that is necessary for success in the realization of sustainable development to encouraged measures addressed simultaneously at national, regional and global level. Measures that would prefer a model of sustainable development and a higher degree of protection of the environment should discourage materials- and energy- intensive economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]