Literature Review

Nearly every single day, research reports testify new evidences of substantial environmental degradation occurring around the world, impacting the lives of millions of people. As a notion, this environmental degradation that pertains to both naturally existing mechanisms of environmental or ecosystem degradation and ecological destruction due to anthropogenic activities is commonly referred to as Ecocide. While there is a significant body of research on ecocide, there appears to be a noticeable absence of bibliometric analyses dedicated to comprehensively studying and exploring this field. While the majority of literature in the area of environmental degradation revolves around the detrimental impacts of ecocide, there is a dearth of studies exploring the past, present and future of extant literature using bibliometric analysis. This research adopts bibliometric methodology to glean significant insights into the progress made in this field, delving into research articles published from 1990 to 2022. The paper aims to classify the available literature on Ecocide based on bibliometric criteria, including publication year, geographical region, authorship, affiliated institution, and source. Also, a bibliometric analysis of keyword co-occurrence to understand the mainstream themes underpinning the Ecocide literature was performed. The paper also reviews the legal frameworks and comes up with future areas of research in the domain of ecocide. This work can help find commonalities and connections in the published works. With this knowledge, researchers might build stronger partnerships and reach a larger audience with their advances. This research can fill up the gaps in the extant literature and provide new directions for research and policymaking.

From climate disaster to the specter of nuclear annihilation to the rise of fascism and destruction of democracy to the advent of AI and other potentially destructive technologies, a number of material threats are matched by symbolic threats that undermine the capacities of people to respond. The war on public and critical education and the public sphere, the erosion of investigative journalism, ideologies of cynicism, and the crises of critical theoretical tools and literacies undermine individual and collective agency to respond to these threats. The result of these material threats and crises of agency is political paralysis, cynicism, and despair.

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Ecocide is a term used to describe serious or wide-spread or long-lasting destruction or damage of the natural environment or other forms of environmental degradation. The concept of ecocide has been very actual for several decades. However, there has been growing momentum in recent years to establish ecocide as an international crime under the mandate of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC is a court of last resort that prosecutes individuals for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, including war crimes, war aggression, crimes against humanity, and genocide. In December 2021, a group of experts proposed a definition of ecocide to the ICC, which could serve as the basis for establishing ecocide as an international crime. The definition proposed is: "Unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts." If ecocide were to be established as an international crime, it would allow for individuals, or legal entities, and even states to be held accountable for their actions that cause significant harm to the environment. This would be a significant step forward in protecting the planet and ensuring that those responsible for environmental destruction are held accountable for their actions. The purpose of this paper will be to research the idea of ecocide as a new crime and to give a short preview of this “new” crime in the Macedonian criminal code.

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More than the previous century, the destruction caused on environment potentially has been the highest in last decade or so. A report by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) placesit as the fourth-largest criminal operation in the world, just after counterfeiting, human trafficking,and drug smuggling. It is very recent that environmental damage is treated at par with a criminal activity, and with the looming crisis of climate change, it is now, more than ever that criminality of ecocide should be looked into. But it is not an easy process since the contrast between crime and damage highlights a persistent dilemma for criminology, whether to limit its focus just on legally recognized offences or delve into activities that are legal but its effects are negative and needs to forbidden. For the longest time, violations of law are dealt with but lawful degradation is brushed off with moral derangement but it derails the future whose basis is in environment. With the support of an internationally enforceable legal framework, these crimes and harms need to be addressed through both informal and official modes of settlement and restitution. This paper explores ecocide as a new challenge for the existing regulatory framework and recommends new legislative interventions.

This paper reviews key definitions of ecocide that have emerged since the 1970s, from Richard A Falk’s early draft International Convention on the Crime of Ecocide, to the Stop Ecocide Foundation Expert Panel’s definition of 2021, and analyses enduring legal and political challenges to the prospects for a new international crime. Despite the latter definition gaining prominence and considerable support we argue that there is a continuing necessity to reflect on the key challenges to the development of an international crime that can actually deliver accountability for serious crimes against the environment, and that engagement with previous definitions can assist in these reflections. We discuss core problems with categorising and negotiating ecocide, guaranteeing legality and ascertaining appropriate gravity and requisite levels of intention. Based on our analysis of past and present definitions, and the social construction of related crimes and international norms, we advocate for a robust articulation of the potential crime that balances foreseeability and flexibility, detached from the requirements of the other core crimes and includes an understanding of intent that embraces reckless acts and omissions and which avoids a cost versus benefit analysis. While we are advocates of ecocide’s criminalisation, we are also conscious of the political and operational barriers to ecocide’s creation and implementation. As such, we argue both for interim measures such as non-binding declarations in support of ecocide, and for humility with regards to what the law can meaningfully achieve. For us, ecocide represents one possible tool in a toolkit that must include a range of legal and political interventions to prevent and repair environmental destruction.

The intensive development of weapons, forms and methods of armed struggle in armed conflicts of the 20th-21st centuries significantly increased the long-term negative impact on the natural environment and actualized the need to formalize generally accepted approaches to minimizing the impact of hostilities on the natural environment as components of international law. As a result, the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) of June 8, 1977, prohibits to the parties of an armed conflict to use methods or means of warfare intended, which are intended to inflict or, as can be expected, will cause extensive long-term and serious damage to the natural environment (Article 35). At the same time, the application of measures to cause damage to the natural environment as one of the forms of reprisals is prohibited by the specified protocol. During the large-scale invasion of the russian federation into the territory of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the russian occupation forces captured the Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhia NPPs, the Kakhovka HPP and other critical infrastructure facilities. Objectively, as a result of the violation of their regular functioning, the risks of emergency situations with potentially catastrophic consequences for the population and the natural environment have significantly increased. This determined the extreme relevance of remote monitoring of the situation at such facilities. The subject of this publication is the results of remote sensing monitoring of the state of one such critical infrastructure facility, namely the Kakhovka HPP.

The planetary crisis that we face today is not only a result of human-induced environmental degradation, but also of a deep crisis of meaning and value in human existence. In consequence, this article will demonstrate the value of phenomenology towards the existential paradigm within green criminology and its importance to overcome a lived experience that is opposed to the planet’s ecological balance. The article will present Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology through his conception of ‘being-here’, which elaborates on the modes of unreflective and unselfconsciousness of everyday existence. This will then be developed into the theory of being-towards-ecocide that is concerned with the meaning of the individual’s encounter with ecocide. Finally, the value of phenomenology as a conceptual tool for the analysis of green crimes and harms will be outlined as a necessary shift towards transcending ecocide and for an existential, theoretical, and systematic construction for the world of everyday life.

Climate change necessitates urgent legal action at both national and international levels to protect the planet and ensure sustainable global cooperation. The concept of “climate neutrality”, which aims to balance positive and negative emissions to combat climate change effectively, demands the establishment of an effective Climate Criminal Law which should limit climate damaging behaviours while reconciling individual liberties with climate protection. While dogmatic approaches are essential, they encounter difficulties in defining the object of protection, proving causality and addressing social utility concerns. On an institutional level, the development of climate criminal law must involve the community of states, acknowledging that the atmosphere is a shared resource. Therefore, global jurisdiction and transnational cooperation are essential.

Criminal law plays a unique role in protecting environmental rights. Ecocide as an environmental problem is a global problem that has transcended national borders and turned into environmental pollution and regional and global ecosystem problems. The use of criminal law and determining the guarantee of execution, both in the domestic and international dimensions, to protectenvironmental rights, will have an effective impact on the protection of the global environment. Internationally, environmental rights are defined as the right to have a good environment. However, this concept is developing and a precise definition of the crime of ecocide of material and spiritual elements and what place ecocide has in the definition of the crime has not yet been provided. Governments, groups, and companies with power and wealth, as the main cause of environmental destruction, what restrictions do they create in establishing and passing laws related to ecocide? This article analytically and descriptively shows that criminal behavior in the field of environmental crimes is a very serious issue. These behaviors include illegal activities related to water and air pollution, destruction of natural resources, illegal hunting and wildlife trade, migration developments, smuggling of biological products, and other activities that harm the environment as destruction. In other words, the purpose of this research is to map where ecocide is located under the criminal law offense and provide directions for future research.

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