Methods for environmental criminal law research

This chapter aims to equip scholars with the necessary tools and insights for conducting research in environmental criminal law. It first provides an overview of the history of environmental criminal law, including certain recent developments. Thereafter, the chapter defines which legal interests and values may be protected by environmental criminal law, as this is crucial for understanding this field of law. Following this, three of the most important research methods for environmental criminal law scholars are described, namely comparative legal research, law and economics reseach, and empirical methods. The main features, advantages and limitations of each of those methods are explained, as well as how they can be applied to issues of environmental criminal law. Finally, the chapter suggests how these methods can be combined and complemented to produce rigorous and innovative research on environmental criminal law.