Ecocide in the Light of Criminal Law with the Formation of Criminal Behaviors in Environmental Degradation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. student of Criminal law and criminology, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Sciences, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, East Azarbaijan, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Sciences, Urmia Branch, Islamic Azad University, West Azarbaijan, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Sciences, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, East Azarbaijan, Iran.

4 Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Sciences, Tabriz University, East Azarbaijan, Iran.

10.48300/jlr.2023.408115.2401

Abstract

Criminal law plays a unique role in protecting environmental rights. Ecocide as an environmental problem is a global problem that has transcended national borders and turned into environmental pollution and regional and global ecosystem problems. The use of criminal law and determining the guarantee of execution, both in the domestic and international dimensions, to protect environmental rights, will have an effective impact on the protection of the global environment. Internationally, environmental rights are defined as the right to have a good environment. However, this concept is developing and a precise definition of the crime of ecocide of material and spiritual elements and what place ecocide has in the definition of the crime has not yet been provided. Governments, groups, and companies with power and wealth, as the main cause of environmental destruction, what restrictions do they create in establishing and passing laws related to ecocide? This article analytically and descriptively shows that criminal behavior in the field of environmental crimes is a very serious issue. These behaviors include illegal activities related to water and air pollution, destruction of natural resources, illegal hunting and wildlife trade, migration developments, smuggling of biological products, and other activities that harm the environment as destruction. In other words, the purpose of this research is to map where ecocide is located under the criminal law offense and provide directions for future research.

Keywords

References

Albin Isser, "The Subjective Elements of Mistake of Fact and Mistake of Law," in Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Vol. 1, edited by Anthony Cassi, Paula Gaeta and John Jones Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
Anja Guger, May Pouye Rabatel-Fernel, Louise Colbicki, Damien Short and Polly Higgins, The Ecocide Project: Ecocide is the Fifth Missing Crime Against Peace, Human Rights Consortium, 2013 No. 8
Payam Akhwan, “Beyond Impunity: Can International Criminal Justice Prevent Future Atrocities?”, American Journal of International Law 95, no. 1 year 2001
 
David Luban, "After the Honeymoon. Reflections on the Current State of International Criminal Justice, Journal of International Criminal Justice 11, no. 3 years 2013
Roozbeh, Mehrad, Nyusha Garhami Afshar, Abbas Ali Akbari, Seyed Mohammad Taghi Alavi, "Legislative progress of ecocide in the legal system of France and Belgium towards the circuit of adaptation and balance with the Rome Statute", Legal Researches, Shahr Danesh Publications, Volume 3, Number 59, Fall 1403
10.48300/JLR.2023.369281.2201
 
 Zamani, Seyyed Qasim, "Development of International Responsibility in the Light of International Environmental Law", Legal Research, Shahr Danesh Publications, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2018
https://jlr.sdil.ac.ir/article_44938.html
Kenneth Gallant, "The Legal Principle in International and Comparative Criminal Law", Cambridge University Press, No. 17, 2008
Kenneth Anderson, “The Emergence of International Criminal Law: Intended and Unintended Consequences,” European Journal of International Law 20, no. 2 years 2009
International Law Commission, Documents of the Forty-fifth Session (1993), "Comments and Observations Received from Governments" (A/CN.4/448 and Add.1), 88, 102, 105
Nasr Esfahani, Ahmed, Leila Raisi, Alireza Arashpour, "International Criminalization of Biodegradation", Two Quarterly Journals of Criminal Law, Razavi University of Sciences, Volume 17, Number 19, Spring and Summer 2019
10.30513/CLD.2020.77.1006
Martin Crook and Damien Short, “Marx, Lemkin and the Genocide-Colomcide Link,” International Journal of Human Rights 18, no. 3 years 2014
Martin Crook, Damien Short, and Nigel South, “Ecocide, Genocide, Capitalism and Colonialism: Implications for Indigenous Peoples and Glocal Ecosystems,” Theoretical Criminology 22, no. 3 years 2018
Marina Aksenova, “Symbolism as a Constraint in International Criminal Law,” Leiden Journal of International Law 30, no. 2 years 2017
William Schabas, Genocide in International Law: The Crime of Crimes, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2009
Mohammad Alwa Badar, "The Subjective Element in the Statute of the Rome International Criminal Court: An Interpretation from the Perspective of Comparative Criminal Law," Criminal Law Society 19, no. 3 years 2008
Li, G. Zhang, L. Yu, and T. Meng, “Research and design on cognitive computing framework for predicting judicial decisions,” Journal of Signal Processing Systems, vol. 91, no. 10, pp. 1159–1167, 2019
Greenstein, “Preserving the rule of law in the era of artificial intelligence (AI),” Artificial Intelligence and Law, vol. 29, pp. 1–10, 2021.
Hildebrandt, “Law as computation in the era of artificial legal intelligence: speaking law to the power of statistics,” University of Toronto Law Journal, vol. 68, pp. 12–35, 2018.
https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/4830/1/Ecocide_research_report_19_July_13.pdf
Eliana Teresa Cusato, “Beyond Symbolism: Problems and Prospects with Prosecuting Environmental Destruction Before the ICC,” Journal of International Criminal Justice 15, no. 3 (2017): 491–507, 493
John Vidal and Owen Bowcott, “ICC Widens Remit to Include Environmental Destruction Cases,” The Guardian, 15 September 2016
Global Witness, “Company Executives Could Now be Tried for Land Grabs and Environmental Destruction,” Press release, 15 September 2016
Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide, “Commentary and Core Text,” June 2021
Herman von Hebel and Darryl Robinson, “Crimes within the Jurisdiction of the Court,” in The International Criminal Court: The Making of the Rome Statute – Issues, Negotiations, Results, ed. Roy Lee (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999), 79–126, 112
https://www.stopecocide.earth/making-ecocide-a-crime (accessed 7 July 2021)
Drumbl, International Human Rights, 340; see also Frédéric Mégret, “The Problem of an International Criminal Law of the Environment,” Columbia Journal of Environmental Law 36, no. 2 (2011): 195–257, 247–8.
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/enmod-1976/understandings.
Ambos, Protecting the Environment; Heller, Skeptical Thoughts; Heller, Ecocide and Anthropocentric Cost-Benefit Analysis; Heller, Crime of Ecocide in Action.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf.
http://opiniojuris.org/2021/07/16/your-guide-to-ecocide-part-2-the-hard-part/.
Barrie Sander,»The Expressive Turn of International Criminal Justice: A Field in Search of Meaning« Leiden Journal of International Law 32, no. 4. (2019): 851–72; see also Mark Drumbl, Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 173–4.
Matthew Gillett, “Environmental Damage and International Criminal Law,” in Jodoin and Cordonier Segger, Sustainable Development (see note 39 above), 73–99, 98. See also Cusato, Beyond Symbolism, 506.
https://www.stopecocide.earth/making-ecocide-a-crime,
Natascha Kersting, “On Symbolism and Beyond: Defining Ecocide,” Völkerrechtsblog, 8 July 2021
http://opiniojuris.org/2021/07/29/ecocide-environmental-crime-of-crimes-or-ill-conceived-concept/.
Per Saland »International Criminal Law Principles« in The International Criminal Court: The Making of the Rome Statute – Issues, Negotiations, Results, ed. Roy Lee (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999), 189–216, 205.
Eradicating Ecocide, “Closing the Door to Dangerous Industrial Activity: A Concept Paper for Governments to Implement Emergency Measures” (2012), 13
http://eradicatingecocide.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/06/Concept-Paper.pdf
United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court Rome, 15 June–17 July 1998, Vol. II: “Summary Records of the Plenary Meetings and of the Meetings of the Committee of the Whole,” 136,
https://legal.un.org/icc/rome/proceedings/E/Rome%20Proceedings_v2_e.pdf.
 
Anastacia Greene, “Mens Rea and the Proposed Legal Definition of Ecocide,” Völkerrechtsblog, 7 July 2021, 
https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/mens-rea-and-the-proposed-legal-definition-of-ecocide/
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/how-artificial-intelligence-helping-tackle-environmental-challenges
https://www.cfr.org/blog/artificial-intelligences-environmental-costs-and-promise
Li, G. Zhang, L. Yu, and T. Meng, “Research and design on cognitive computing framework for predicting judicial decisions,” Journal of Signal Processing Systems, vol. 91, no. 10, pp. 1159–1167, 2019
Greenstein, “Preserving the rule of law in the era of artificial intelligence (AI),” Artificial Intelligence and Law, vol. 29, pp. 1–10, 2021.
Hildebrandt, “Law as computation in the era of artificial legal intelligence: speaking law to the power of statistics,” University of Toronto Law Journal, vol. 68, pp. 12–35, 2018.
Journal of Legal Research
Volume 22, Issue 56
February 2024
Pages 493-532

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics