Determination of rules and criteria of environmental justice in the enforcement powers of the Superintendency of the Environment

Abstract

This paper proposes that the regulatory design of certain instruments incorporated to the Organic Law of the Superintendence of the Environment allows the application of environmental justice rules and criteria. In order to identify which are the possible applicable environmental justice standards, an analysis of the regulations and administrative practice of the said authority, since its entry into force, is carried out, with special emphasis on inspection programs and subprograms, compliance programs and environmental sanctions. Next, the paper includes an explanation of the development and conclusions of an empirical study on the application of these instruments in certain municipalities that have been classified as “sacrifice zones”. Finally, based on this analysis, various rules and criteria of environmental justice that are applicable to environmental enforcement are identified and proposed.