🌍 Understanding the Elements of Ecocide Law: A Seven-Part Series 🌍
🌍 Understanding the Elements of Ecocide Law: A Seven-Part Series 🌍
This series breaks down the seven key elements of adopted and proposed ecocide legislation, why they matter and how they have changed in comparison to the international proposal.
Xuchen Zhang and Kate Mackintosh conducted an extensive comparison of existing and proposed laws that you can read here [https://globaljustice.queenslaw.ca/news/converging-standards-ecocide-laws-proposals-in-comparative-perspective]. In this series, we present their findings in bite-sized pieces, examining each element in detail to highlight its significance.
Part 2: The definition of ‘Environment’
As ecocide encompasses harm to the environment, the definition of environment governs what kinds of harm can be criminalized. While there is no accepted definition of the environment in international law, the International Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide follows the language of the Environmental Modification Convention to define the “environment” as “the earth, its biosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, as well as outer space”.
The International Proposal further specifies the protected elements of the environment in its definitions of the threshold of harm (see Part 1 of the series). These include ecosystems; species; natural, cultural or economic resources, and even human life.
Of note, the International Law Commission and the International Committee of the Red Cross both consider that the concept of the environment includes both human and natural elements as they constitute a complex system of interconnections that cannot be treated as discrete.
Some of the legislation surveyed, like the French law, the Jalisco (Mexico) law, as well as the Italian, Peruvian and Brazilian proposals, do not define the term environment but instead delineate the protected elements exclusively in other parts of the definition. Others, like the International Proposal, do both: the ECD, the Belgian law, and the Mexican (federal), Scottish and Dutch proposals.
How the environment is defined is important. A closed list of elements of the environment offers less protection but more clarity than a catch-all definition like ecosystems, or flora and fauna. The environment can also be defined in a way which separates humans from the rest of nature, or one which includes all living beings.