Ecocide as an International Law Crime: The Tension Between Objective and Means

Abstract

On 9th September 2024, Vanuatu, Samoa, and Fiji formally proposed an ecocide amendment to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court. If adopted, ecocide would become a further crime against the international community for which private individuals may be prosecuted. A crime of ecocide would represent a category of crime substantively different from the current ones, and even those are not universally accepted. A further fundamental issue is the definition of the criminalised actions. Criminal law must clearly define what constitutes a crime; a purposive definition is not good enough. Some acts, such as a large-scale spill of chemicals of proven toxicity, are easy to grasp. Others, especially climate-related, are more problematical; while there is little scientific disagreement that certain human activities have potential to do harm, the detailed mechanisms and interactions are still poorly understood. This article explores the impetus behind the effort, the actions targeted, and the possible ramifications of an adoption of the amendment, considering the (brief) history of the court and its standing in the international community.