Who could be held responsible for ecocide under the Rome Statute?

At last year’s UvA roundtable discussion with Philippe Sands, and a subsequent Rethinking SLIC Panel Discussion on Ecocide with Kate Mackintosh, we presented our views about the scope of liability for acts of ecocide in response to the Stop Ecocide Foundation Independent Expert Panel’s (IEP) proposal for the legal definition of ecocide. We welcomed the IEP’s contribution and agreed with the need for accountability under international law for environmental destruction. However, we also sought to consider an aspect of the IEP’s proposal that we felt had not received much attention: who could be held liable for ecocide? We examined how the Rome Statute’s framework for individual criminal liability could apply to a hypothetical scenario of ecocide. This exercise raised concerns that the proposed Rome Statute crime of ecocide lacks certainty and may lead to overcriminalization. Some reflections from our discussions on ecocide are set out in this blog.