Sjoerd Lopik in Mr. Online on environmental criminal law
Dutch online news platform Mr. Online interviewed external PhD student Sjoerd Lopik about the development of environmental criminal law in the Netherlands and about his experiences combining his job as a researcher with his work in the legal practice.
External PhD student Sjoerd Lopik works four days a week as an attorney at Allen & Overy while also working one day a week on his dissertation on environmental criminal law. Major climate cases are currently heard in civil courts, but Lopik told Mr. Online that criminal law could have even more to offer there:
'Generally, criminal law is attributed to have a greater behaviour-changing effect than private law. It is therefore conceivable that criminal law could play a role in the behavioural change needed to mitigate climate change. In addition, criminal law has a strong expressive function, which could shape the disapproval that many people feel about certain climate-related behaviour.'
Interested in reading more?
Would you like to know more about his work and research? Then read the entire interview (in Dutch) on Mr. Online.