Manuel Silva Gomes in the 2008 December issue of the “Water and Environment" Journal

Manuel da Silva Gomes, PLMJ Senior Associate coordinating the Firm’s Environment Law team, was one of the experts in this area who this newspaper wanted to hear on the effects the 2006 Basic Law on Environmental Offences and the 2007 Penal Reform  brought to environmental law in Portugal According to Manuel da Silva Gomes, in spite of being too soon to realize its total effects, this Law constitutes a relevant innovation on environment protection in our country, and it has brought to “operators” the clear sense that, given the amount of the applicable fines in case of violation, it is no longer economically advantageous to violate the law.

For this PLMJ Lawyer, “practical results” may be more easily verified should the Directive Proposal of the European Parliament and Council to regulate environmental protection by penal law be accepted.