RIPARAZIONE AMBIENTALE E GIUSTIZIA PENALE DEGLI ENTI: TRA RIORGANIZZAZIONE E RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Recently, there have been several interventions by the national (including constitutional) and supranational legislators that demonstrate the desire to intensify environmental protection. Referring to the last two years, there are two pieces of legislation that more than all manifest this intent: constitutional law no. 1 of 11 February 2022, with which the environment has "entered" into Articles 9 and 41 of the Constitution and EU Directive 2024/1203, within which the European legislator intended to relaunch the role of criminal sanctions, in the face of the "increase in environmental crimes and their effects" (Recital no. 3). The growing attention dedicated to the need to strengthen criminal protection of the environment has also forced the European legislator to also deal with the sector of corporate crime, which plays a prominent role in this area. Well, precisely in consideration of the protagonism of the entities in this sector of crime and the gradual introduction of certain environmental crimes into the catalogue of crimes predicated on the liability pursuant to Legislative Decree 231/2001, this work questions the functioning of the mechanisms of "repair" of the environmental asset, which represent one of the most characterizing features of criminal protection in this matter. The aim of the analysis will be to verify the possible intersections between the rules dedicated to natural persons and the criminal proceedings of companies regulated by Legislative Decree 231/2001. For this examination, in the first chapter, it will be necessary, on the one hand, to examine the dynamics of multiple institutes provided for by the penal code and by the legislation of the sector, and, on the other, to analyze the criminal proceedings of companies, from the point of view of the relevance of the restorative conduct. In the examination of the forms of reintegration of the environmental asset provided for by criminal legislation - which, although not expressly mentioning entities among its recipients, requires, as will be seen, their involvement - and of the remedial activities at the expense of the legal person, one cannot ignore the element of the elimination of the organizational deficiencies that allowed the commission of the crime (art. 17, co. 1, letter b), Legislative Decree 231 of 2001). The theme, in addition to representing the opportunity to discuss the imputative function attributable to compliance (art. 6 Legislative Decree 231/2001), acquires autonomy with reference to the "environmental organization model". In this regard, the second chapter will specifically examine the restorative function of the environmental organizational model, which questions the commentator on the need, de iure condendo, to hope for the introduction of a presumption of conformity to the models adopted in compliance with international standards and to explore the prospect of the mandatory nature of the ante delictum model (a prospect, as will be seen, partially inherent also in EU Directive no. 1203 of 2024). Finally, to complete the analysis on the environmental remediation of entities, it seems a priority to deal with an evolutionary perspective for Legislative Decree 231/2001 which, after more than twenty years from its entry into force, must - according to the perspective adopted by this work - deal with the introduction into the legal system, following the so-called Cartabia Reform, of restorative justice (Legislative Decree no. 150 of 2022). The combination of corporate criminal justice and restorative justice turns out to be a theme full of implications, first of all the integration of the new rules of the criminal procedure code in the de societate procedure. The objective, therefore, turns out to be challenging: if it is possible to intersect these two disciplines, apparently rather distant, it is necessary to evaluate their potential also with reference to the thematic area chosen here: corporate criminal justice in environmental matters.