One of the measures which is able to ensure the implementation of sustainable development aims is the institute of legal entities‟ environmental legal liability and its effective application. Three sorts of legal entities‟ legal liability can be applied in Lithuania, namely, civil, criminal and administrative liability.
Evaluating from the prospect of implementation of sustainable development aims, the potentially effective sorts of legal liability in the environmental sphere are legal entities‟ administrative and criminal liability. Legal entities violating the norms of environmental law set economic aim above social and environmental aims, hence legal entities also encroach on sustainable development and do not allow for a striving towards the combinability of environmental, economic and social societal aims. This circumstance presupposes the demand to supplement the conception of the object of environmental law violation by both human health and life and sustainable development categories.
This article tries to answer the questions as to whether administrative or criminal liability should be applied to the legal entities for offences against the environment, and to which liability – criminal or administrative – a legislator should render priority in protecting the environment from illegal actions of the legal entities