Climate-Related Crimes: Conceptualizing Ecocide in International and Domestic Criminal Law

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17272393

Abstract

Climate-based crimes are becoming one of the most critical challenges that are threatening human survival and world security. Although the scope of environmental law has conventionally been regulation and compliance, the magnitude of the ecological destruction that climatic changes have brought about has led to the emergence of the concept of ecocide as a possible international crime. The paper will discuss the conceptual basis, law evolution and domestic measures of ecocide, in the context of international and national criminal law. It explores the new controversies of including ecocide in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as domestic legal advances in places like France, Ukraine, and the European Union. Moreover, it considers the place of ecocide in enhancing environmental human rights, especially the right to a healthy environment. The analysis ends by suggesting reforms in codification and enforcement, and critically analyzes the problems of sovereignty, enforcement and definitional sharpness.

Keywords: Ecocide; Climate Change; International Criminal Law; Environmental Crimes; Human Rights; Rome Statute; Pakistan