The protection of the environment under the ICC Rome Statute: does the wheel really need to be reinvented?

The need to improve the available legal instruments to protect the environment has led to a whirlwind of proposals in the field of criminal law and litigation, both domestically and internationally. One of the most mediatized proposals at the international level has perhaps been the inclusion within the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) of the crime of “ecocide”, with a view at heightening the environment to the level of those most fundamental legal interests whose protection against the most egregious violations is demanded to the ICC. 

Based on the suggested definition of the crime of “ecocide”, this chapter explores whether the environment should be protected under international criminal law as an independent legal interest or as enshrined in the multifaceted concept of human dignity that the Rome Statute already aims to protect. In this regard, the author argues that humankind and environment are so substantially entwined that whatever harm to the latter cannot but result in a harm to the former too. The author therefore suggests that the Rome Statute already includes tools to protect the environment from the most egregious violations and could constitute an important instrument of last resort in environmental and climate litigation.