The articles, assembled in this book, present the written versions of contributions made to a conference on criminal sanctions in environmental law which the European Commission had organised in November 2003. The majority of the contributions are in English; some papers written in French are presented here in their original language. Few contributions in Italian and German were translated into English.The book hopes to contribute to the discussion on sanctions in environmental law which are, in the opinion of the editors, neither efficient nor deterrent. As this discussion will start anew once the EC Court of Justice will have decided the question whether the EC may provide for penal environmental sanctions, this book will deliver useful background material to the role and the protection of the environment in the European Union at the begin of this 21st century.