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)
Universality issue
Universal state participation should absolutely remain one of the fundamental long-term goals of the ICC because it would increase the agency of the court. A wider range of influence and authority...Arrest Lecture issue
Although Ambassador Scheffer did note that state parties need to regard arrest warrants not as a political option to be debated but rather as an obligation to be fulfilled, the creation of an...Deterrence issue
Deterrence is an attainable goal for the ICC only to the extent of its power and reputation as legitimate enforcer of law and punishment. The ICC's ability to deter mass atrocities solely through its...