This book provides a critical study of environmental regulation and its
enforcement in New Zealand, situated within green criminology. It seeks
to address the question of whether the offences in the Resource
Management Act 1991 are 'working', by drawing on a range of sources
including: central government data, local government policies and
reports on enforcement, information requests of councils, studies of
local authority enforcement behaviour and case law to. Through highly
layered and richly textured analysis, the project exposes the problems
that can arise when an expansive approach is taken to offences,
penalties and institutional arrangements in an environmental regulatory
statute. It emphasizes how discussions of harm and what should be
unlawful will ensure that law-makers' enforcement tools will align with
their goals for punishment. It examines higher-level issues such as
'wrongfulness' and 'criminality' in the environmental regulatory context
and explores the relevance of its findings to jurisdictions outside of
New Zealand. It also discusses the pros and cons of criminalisation and
punishment versus restoration. It speaks to those interested in green
criminology, regulatory compliance and enforcement, and applications of
criminal law.