Crime against the natural environment – ecocide – from the perspective of international law

Abstract

Deep, human induced, environmental changes become a global danger for the whole population. A form of reaction to those dangers as well as possibility of reversing the risks can be a deeper insight into the legal instruments of environmental liability – including the criminal liability for environmental harm. While national legal systems seem to succeed in introducing instruments of criminal liability of environmental crimes, the international law seems not to follow this trend. It is even hard to specify what constitutes the environmental crime according to international law. The evolution of international law in this field has shown many and unsuccessful attempts to bring environmental crimes into the catalogues of crimes recognized by international law. The most promising fora for identification of international crimes against environment seems to be the International Criminal Court (ICC). Potential use of ICC for identification and effective realization of criminal liability of environmental damage has however its limits.