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Criminal Prosecutions In Environmental Law: A Study Of The "Kepone" Case, Ronald J. Bacigal, Margaret I. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

The effectiveness of criminal prosecutions in the environmental law area is often disparaged. Some commentators suggest that corporate behavior is not significantly affected by criminal convictions because fines that are adequate to deter individual pollutors often have little impact on multi-million dollar corporations. Such a contention, however is challenged by the history surrounding the prosecution of the Allied Chemical Corporation for the pollution caused by the pesticide Kepone. The successful prosecution of the Kepone case dramatically altered Allied's corporate behavior had a significant impact on legislative and administrative inspection schemes, and led to the establishment of an endowment for improvement …