Without a mandate to take actions necessary to enforce the laws they are charged with upholding, enforcement agencies are powerless to ensure compliance with the laws. Laws and regulations delegating authority to enforcement agencies and related bodies should clearly provide that these entities may undertake the necessary actions such as having access to the relevant facilities and imposing sanctions.
Response mechanisms imposed by enforcement authorities are designed to achieve one or more of the following:
- Return violators to compliance;
- Impose a sanction;
- Remove the economic benefit of non-compliance;
- Require that specific action be taken to test, monitor or provide information;
- Correct environmental damages; and
- Correct internal company management problems.
(Source: INECE).
Response mechanisms can either be formal (for example, civil, criminal or administrative judicial enforcement) or informal (for example, telephone calls, inspection, warning letters or notice of violation). The type of “authority” determines the “response” the enforcement agency/official sets in motion to elicit compliance with the law.
States can develop legal authorities and response mechanisms that address the specific 
environmental issue or media being regulated. For example, this may be the authority to inspect hazardous waste sites and authority to issue penalties for violations of hazardous waste regulations. Such authorities may provide for administrative, civil, and/or criminal sanctions. At the same time, States could also make use of more general statutory authority and sanctions that might be implicated in an environmental violation – for example, general fraud and misrepresentation statutes, or tax and customs regulations for illegal trade – as these can bolster the environmental authority.
In addition to the case studies below, additional discussion and examples relating to judicial matters may be found following Guidelines 32
, 41(a)(v), 41(i), 41(o), 43(c), 43(d), 46, and 47.