The colonial limits of the criminalization of ecocide before the International Criminal Court

Abstract

The international criminalization of ecocide has been the subject of debate for the last fifty years, with the most recent proposal appearing in the context of accelerating climate change. This article aims to engage in this debate, starting from the field of Latin American critical criminology, informed by decolonial literature, indigenous climate studies and Southern green criminology. Through theoretical and documentary research, the article aims to understand how the stated objectives of the criminalization of ecocide at the international level dialect with the cognitive and material bases of the operationalization of the international criminal justice system, especially with regard to the colonial origins of genocide, ecocide and the actual operationalization of the International Criminal Court itself.

Keywords

• processes of criminalization
• ecocide
• international criminal court