Beneficiary in environmental crimes in EU and Iranian law

Abstract Environmental crimes have three distinctive features compared to other crimes: wideness in terms of perpetrator, diversity in terms of behavior, dynamism and causal link in terms of results. Today, in addition to governments, citizens and non-governmental organizations can also play an important role to protect the environment. But, beneficiary designation has somehow limited the access of non-governmental natural and legal persons to justice. Beneficiary is a person (or entity) who is authorized to file a lawsuit. This study focuses on beneficiary designation challenges in environmental crimes and criminal responsibility for those who pollute or destroy the environment. Today, most countries have come to the conclusion that beneficiary designation in the field of environmental crimes is different from other fields. For example, in many countries of the European Union, it is possible to file lawsuits by citizens for public interest purposes. The present study, based on library resources and analytical-comparative method, tries to examine the concepts and generalities related to beneficiary and to explore and analyze its characteristics in Iranian environmental cases law compared to the European Union. In this context, the challenges of beneficiary designation in Iran and ultimate solutions have also been explained. The results shows that the traditional approach to beneficiary in environmental crimes is an important obstacle for prosecuting such crimes and fails to fulfil criminal responsibility.