Converging Standards? Ecocide Laws & Proposals in Comparative Perspective
This article examines ten new ecocide laws and legislative proposals for emerging convergence around the definition of the crime.
📖Read "𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴? 𝘌𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘸𝘴 & 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦" by our Legal Associate Xuchen Zhang and Executive Director Kate Mackintosh, published in PKI Global Justice Journal.
🔗 bit.ly/convergingstandards
In this comparative analysis of new and proposed ecocide laws, Zhang and Mackintosh conclude that there has been a clear convergence in the definition of the crime since the Independent Expert Panel definition in 2021.
This convergence is around the elements or building blocks of the crime rather than exactly how each element appears in its regional, national or sub-national transposition.
While proposals for ecocide laws replicate the Independent Experts Panel definition more closely, those that have been through the law-making process tend to diverge in a number of ways. This is to be expected and reflects the complexity and specificity of each jurisdiction. It remains to be seen whether a common definition of ecocide will emerge from the bottom up or be imposed at the international level, for example, via an amendment to the Rome Statute.