Path and perspectives for the criminalization of Ecocide under International Law: The vacuums of the current international criminal system in cases of territorial occupation and “cumulative ecocide”

The present dissertation addresses the prospect of enlarging the scope of international criminal law for environmental protection purposes. The possibility will be, firstly, framed in a broader context of international environmental law development. After having presented the evolution of environment’s legal meaning, different approaches to environmental protection, and the existing legal system of environmental protection from massive harm, the examination will focus on the international criminal responsibility of individuals for massive environmental damage. The analysis will underline the main criticalities attributed to the present international criminal system considering environmental harm under the umbrella of War Crime under the International Criminal Court Statute. On these bases, the paper will present and discuss the concept of Ecocide and the Stop Ecocide Foundation’s proposal for an amendment to the Rome Statute. As a final note, analyzing the case of the Occupied Palestinian Territories will serve as a further element to argue for the necessity of the provision of an independent international crime of ecocide under the Rome Statute. In this respect, it will be argued that the material element of the crime would require to be formulated both as simple conduct and as cumulative conduct. The cumulative element of the crime would reflect the nature of environmental damage, differentiating itself from simple progressiveness.