[SCL Lecture] Environmental harm and international criminal law

The year of 2022 marked the 50^th anniversary of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, which recalls that: 

'man’s capability to transform his surroundings, if used wisely, can bring to all peoples the benefits of development and the opportunity to enhance the quality of life. Wrongly or heedlessly applied, the same power can do incalculable harm to human beings and the human environment.'

With the threat of anthropogenic harm becoming clearer each year, it is imperative to explore legal means to tackle serious damage to the environment. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has signaled that it will place emphasis on prosecuting the most egregious incidents of environmental destruction. Experts have suggested adding the crime of ecocide to the court’s statute. However, the ICC is subject to jurisdictional limits that restrict its ability to adjudicate ecocentric cases.

Against this backdrop, the panel will discuss the possibility of using judicial proceedings to establish responsibility for serious environmental harm (including ecocide) under international criminal law.

Keynote Presenter
Matthew Gillett, Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex and a UN Special Mandate holder on the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. He previously worked as a Prosecutor at the ICC and ICTY, and as a Human Rights Officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). He writes on human rights, international law and the environment.

Respondents
Phoebe Okowa, Professor of Public International Law at Queen Mary, University of London and member elect of the International Law Commission
Larissa van den Herik, Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University
Daniëlla Dam-de Jong, Associate Professor and Director of the LLM Regular Programme at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies
Stavros Evdokimos Pantazopoulos, Researcher in International Law, T.M.C. Asser Instituut and Chair, Law Interest Group of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association
Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Presiding Judge of Pre-Trial Chamber II at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Professor of International Criminal Law at Luiss University, Rome

Moderator
Christophe Paulussen, Senior Researcher in International Law, T.M.C. Asser Instituut and Coordinator, IHCL Platform. 

Co-organiser
This lecture is co-organised with the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Commission on Environmental Law (IUCN WCEL) Environmental Security and Conflict Law Specialist Group and the International Humanitarian and Criminal Law (IHCL) Platform.