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Bad Actor Statutes: An Environmental Trojan Horse?, Melissa J. Horne

Vanderbilt Law Review

Congress and the state legislatures have manifested their increasing concern for environmental protection over the past several years by focusing more attention on the punishment of those who violate environmental protection requirements. Rather than seeking to enforce environmental standards merely through civil penalties, lawmakers have imposed criminal penalties, including fines and even jail sentences, on those who violate environmental requirements, from plant managers all the way up the ladder to corporate officers.'

Lawmakers and agency officials have not limited their efforts to the conviction and punishment of environmental criminals, however. Many states have adopted so-called "bad actor" statutes that allow …