Crimes relating to the environment, cultural heritage, construction and urban planning

The issue of environmental crimes is increasingly relevant for companies operating in the Italian territory. In this field, the firm’s experience ranges from traditional contraventions and offences to the new eco-crimes introduced into a specific Title VI-bis (Crimes against the environment) of Book II of the Criminal Code by Law no. 68/2015: environmental pollution; environmental disaster; obstruction of controls; failure to carry out remediation; organized activities for the illicit trafficking of waste.

In recent years, the professionals of the firm have also specialized in the sector of crimes against cultural heritage, which have acquired great importance with the introduction – by Law no. 22/2022 – into Book II of the Criminal Code of a specific Title VIII-bis (Crimes against cultural heritage), which brings together in a single framework both offences already provided for by the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape (Legislative Decree no. 42/2004) and newly introduced offences, punished quite severely: theft and misappropriation of cultural property; use of cultural property deriving from crime; receiving stolen goods, money laundering and self-laundering of cultural property; violations concerning the transfer of cultural property; unlawful import and export of cultural property; destruction, damage, defacement, soiling and unlawful use of cultural and landscape property; devastation and looting thereof; counterfeiting of works of art.

The firm is also noted as one of the most active in the field of construction and urban planning crimes, in which it has acquired considerable and recognized experience by handling numerous proceedings relating to cases of execution of works in the absence of a building permit or in total non-compliance therewith (pursuant to art. 44, para. 1, letter b, Consolidated Building Act – T.U.E.), unlawful subdivision of land or building interventions carried out in total non-compliance, in essential variation or in the absence of a building permit, in areas subject to historical, artistic, archaeological, landscape or environmental constraints (pursuant to art. 44, para. 1, letter c, T.U.E.).