The Criminal Framework for Environmental Pollution in Georgia
Georgian Criminal Code regulates environmental pollution by medium: water objects under Article 292, the sea under Article 293, the atmospheric air under Article 295. Together these three norms form the criminal-law foundation for cases about industrial emissions, waste dumping and purification installations. The permit regimes that govern everyday operations are set by separate environmental legislation; what these articles define is criminal liability itself, with its ladder of consequences — from the mere possibility of harm to death. Each article must be analysed separately, because the difference between the parts of an article is the difference between a fine and years of imprisonment.
Pollution of Water Objects — Article 292
The first part of Article 292 covers the pollution, littering, drainage or other negative impact on a water object that may damage the health of the population, reduce fish stocks, worsen water-supply conditions, cause deterioration of the physical, chemical or biological properties of the water, reduce its natural self-purification capacity, or violate the hydrological and hydrogeological regime. The sanction here is a fine, corrective labour for up to one year, or imprisonment for up to one year, with deprivation of the right to hold a position or carry out activity for up to three years or without it. The second part aggravates liability where the act caused damage to human health or mass destruction of the animal or plant world, or was committed in a state nature reserve or sanctuary, during an emergency ecological situation, or in an ecological disaster zone — a fine, corrective labour for up to two years, or imprisonment for up to three years. Under the third part, where an act under the first or second part caused death or another grave result, the punishment is imprisonment for two to five years.
Pollution of the Sea — Article 293
Article 293 distinguishes two sources of marine pollution. The first part addresses unlawful dumping into the sea of substances harmful to human health or marine organisms, of other waste or material, from a ship, another floating craft, a platform or another construction erected at sea, as well as sea pollution in breach of the burial rules — where this endangers health or marine organisms or hinders the legitimate use of the sea, and after an administrative penalty was imposed for such conduct. The sanction is a fine or corrective labour for up to one year, with deprivation of the right to hold a position or carry out activity for up to three years or without it. The second part governs the same conduct committed from land or from an aircraft, under the same sanction. The third part covers conduct that caused significant damage to human health, the plant world, fish stocks, other living organisms of the water, a recreation zone or another legally protected good — a fine, corrective labour for up to two years, or imprisonment for up to three years. The fourth part applies where the conduct caused death — imprisonment for two to five years. The administrative-penalty precondition in the first part is a structural defence point: without a prior administrative sanction, that part does not apply.