Environmental Protection at National and International Levels: Potentials and Limits of Criminal Justice An overview of the empirical study Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Antonio Herman V. Benjamin, Günter Heine, Jennifer Norberry, Mohan Prabhu I. Introduction The United Nations General Assembly resolution 45/121 of 14 December 1990 on the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of the Offenders welcomed the instruments and resolutions adopted by the Con- gress and in particular the resolution on "The Role of Criminal Law in the Protec- tion of Nature and the Environment". The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its First Session (E/CN.15/1992/7, ch. VI, 1.(a)) adopted the issue, as part of a broader topic which includes transnational, economic and organised crime, as one of the priorities to guide its work for the period 1992-96. Subsequent to the Second Session of the Commission, the Economic and Social Council resolution 1993/32 in operative paragraph 2.4 approved the topic "Action against national and transnational eco- nomic and organised crime, and the role of criminal law in the protection of the environment: national experiences and international co-operation" for inclusion in the provisional agenda for the Ninth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. Furthermore, it endorsed the holding of a workshop on "Environmental Protection at National and International Levels: Potentials and Limits of Criminal Justice" (operative paragraph 5 (e)). The role of criminal law in the protection of the environment was also stressed in ECOSOC resolutions 1993/28 and 1994/15. The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) took the scientific and organisational responsibility for the workshop in co- operation with the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the United Nations (HEUNI), the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for Crime Prevention and Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI), the Australian In-