Abstract
In 2021, post-Brexit environmental law making in the UK opened up debate as to how the law can better protect ecosystems from severe destruction and deterioration. As part of the state-of-the-art review for a PhD entitled ‘Theory and Practice of Ecocide Law in the UK’, this paper explores the British legal context of the introduction of Ecocide and Rights of Nature Law as a solution to the twin crises of global warming and ecological breakdown. It suggests a multipronged approach to the next opportunity to legally recognise nature rights and criminalise ecocide. Starting from the first appearance of the term ‘ecocide’ in the English language and ‘rights of nature’ in the scholarly literature, linguistic definitions of these oft dissociated concepts are set out prior to their legal definitions. Next, ecologically relevant clauses in Criminal Codes, Constitutions and national laws are compared and connected using a simple legal reasoning framework previously used to understand some fundamental legal conceptions as applied in judicial reasoning. Results show that no country in the world has yet codified both concepts concurrently and that although normatively connected, these two legislative approaches to ecosystem protection remain legally distinct. Given the flexibility of UK Statute Law and the potential obligation to transpose eco-legal protections from the international to the domestic level, a future Ecocide and Rights of Nature Law could, in theory, connect both the constitutional and criminal conditions required to eradicate ecocide.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Economic, Social, and Cultural Context
KEYWORDS
Rights of Nature, Ecocide, Legal Doctrinal Research, Environmental Constitutionalism, Eco-Crime
