The inclusion of ecocide to the Rome Statute: A new tool to combat the climate crisis?

Abstract

The damage inflicted on ecosystems requires more legal tools that contribute to compliance with the treaties that protect the environment. One of these tools is criminal law through the criminalization of ecocide at international level. Several voices have proposed amending the Rome Statute to extend the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ecocide, considering it a crime against peace, security and the welfare of mankind. Unlike the four crimes currently under the Court’s mandate, the new one would not have an anthropocentric approach, but would instead have the environment at the center of international criminal justice. The current legal framework allows the ICC to prosecute environmental damage as an extension of war crimes, which is insufficient when the damage is not linked to war. This paper proposes that including ecocide in the Rome Statute would allow the ICC to investigate cases linked to the climate crisis in which individuals have been involved intentionally, recklessly or negligently, in times of war or peace.