RESPONSIBILITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS
IN THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
BRONIUS SUDAVIČIUS
Vilnius University, Faculty of Law, Professor of Public Law Depart¬ment,
Doctor of Social Sciences - Law (Republic of Lithuania)
One of the means used by the states to coordinate public activities with the operation of natural laws is legal regulation, which employs special means to establish environmental requirements dictated by the natural environment itself. But the establishment of respective environmental requirements does not per se ensure their observance. Therefore, it is important not only to properly regulate certain activities causing environmental impact but also to develop an efficient mechanism of compensation for environmental damage ensuring the full remedying of damage, high-quality and timely restoration of the damaged environment and effective responsibility for violations of environmental protection requirements. The most common types of responsibility in the field of environmental protection in Lithuania are: administrative responsibility, criminal responsibility and civil liability. This article is dedicated to give an overview of the basic legal regulation of these three types of environmental responsibility in Lithuania and describe the major problems in this field.