Description
When President Volodymyr Zelensky announced his 10-Point Peace Plan in November 2022, environmental activists welcomed it for having included measures aimed at addressing the environmental costs of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Calling for, in particular, compensation for Russian acts of ecocide, Ukrainian scientists, conservationists, bureaucrats and lawyers have since been documenting Russia’s environmental crimes, which some have described as the most detailed tally of wartime environmental destruction ever undertaken. However, calls for accountability for environmental destruction are not new and contrary to dominant narratives, justice for ecocide has been a recurrent theme within the historical evolution of international criminal law. Seeking to challenge conventional views that portray ecocide, alongside contemporary legal efforts aimed at its recognition as an international crime, as a 21st century response to the climate/ecological emergency, this paper explores ecocide’s marginalized role within the history of international criminal law. In doing so, it demonstrates how a more historically-informed perspective is crucial not only for uncovering the underexplored thinkers, actors and processes that have enabled ecocide to remain, albeit until recently, on the margins of international criminal justice, but also for understanding its current significance within contemporary discussions of law, war and justice.
