park2026:
Criminalizing Ecocide: Will Corporations Change?
Introduction
As climate change accelerates and ecosystems face unprecedented destruction, existing legal frameworks have proven inadequate to prevent or meaningfully deter large-scale environmental harm. Corporations, especially transnational corporations operating across jurisdictions, play a central role in driving deforestation, pollution, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions, often...(more)
Wangu Gatonye:
I.
Introduction
“Ecocide” was coined in the 1970s through a proposal by Professor Arthur W. Galston, but has only recently gained popularity in legal circles.1
The proposed definition is: “[U]nlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”2
The work that the diverse Independent...(more)
Talia Boyadjian:
Why the
IEPs
Draft Definition of Ecocide Cannot Work as a Core Crime
The concept of
ecocide
has circulated long before current efforts to amend the
Rome Statute,
with domestic and international circles debating it as a proposed legal tool to address human-caused extreme environmental destruction.1
Early formulations data back to the Vietnam War in response to large-scale wartime...(more)
africa issue
The ICC doesn't have jurisdiction over the United States or the United Kingdom. So pointing to a failure to prosecute those countries doesn't advance your selective prosecution argument.africa issue
It’s not enough to complain that the ICC hasn’t opened investigations in other parts of the world. There are clear hurdles which cannot be surmounted in many cases. Rather, those arguing that the ICC...Mass Rape issue
Why do you come to the conclusion that the ICC cannot sustain a conviction for mass rape without the testimony from the victims? Carla Ferstman addressed the participation of victims, but not...Mass Rape issue
The ICC only prosecutes high level perpetrators. Usually, these are "leadership" crimes; the defendant is accused of instigating mass rape, not of committing it himself. The actual rapist won't be...Politics Lecture issue
Professor Steinberg states that one of the objections against his assertion that the ICC should engage in politics is "legitimacy", and he counsels that the court needs to preserve its legitimacy by...Mass Rape issue
I agree. Professor MacKinnon's views, which seem to indicate that rape shield laws are paternalistic, may be appropriate in countries where women and men have achieved true gender equality. But I...libya issue
Does anyone really think that Saif Gaddafi would get a fair trial in Libya? The stories of Libyan loyalists being found bound and executed in that hotel were a taste of the kind of justice that Saif...darfur issue
That seems to be a fairly technical requirement that's easily satisfied. And, prior to the Prosecutor making a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber to confirm an investigation begun proprio motu, the...darfur issue
Without grappling with the whole of your comment, I’ll just address your contention that the Prosecutor must maintain a presumption of innocence pursuant to Article 66 (not Article...darfur issue
Professor Schabas, In the hypothetical you raise, the State Party who failed to execute an arrest warrant gets off the hook because the charges are later dismissed. I assume that any State Party,...gaza issue
I can’t tell where you come down on the issue of whether it’s appropriate for the ICC to calculate their actions in a way to maximize a desired political outcome. You quote the preamble of the Rome...gaza issue
Do you think that the ICC should care about the politics? Is it the role of the ICC to take into account the global circumstances and calculate their actions in a way to maximize a desired political...gaza issue
Really? Absent a referral by the Security Council of the UN, I thought that the ICC is strictly bound to the jurisdictional limits of the Statute of Rome and can't claim universal jurisdiction.gaza issue
I think you’ve placed into sharp relief the issue that’s troubling me. Beyond its value as precedent, if the Prosecutor asserted jurisdiction here, would there by an adverse effect to any of the...gaza issue
I argued elsewhere that the bar for considering whether the Palestinians constitute a state should not be high. But in your last paragraph, you seem to treat the issue as if it’s a mere legal...gaza issue
Certainly it’s fair to point out that the ICC has institutional concerns and that it operates in a political environment. But shouldn’t their goal—if not the reality—be to try to be purely judicial?...gaza issue
Why would you argue for a high threshold? It would seem a low threshold would be more appropriate when you have a party begging for the ICC's intervention. Whose interest is served by having the ICC...