ABSTRACT
On 22 June 2021, the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide proposed the following legal definition of “ecocide”: For the purpose of this Statute, “‘ecocide’ means 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.” The objective was to spark a debate on a possible amendment the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to add a fifth international crime that addresses severe environmental destruction. In the aftermath of the launch of the definition, such critical debate has certainly been taking place, primarily in academic circles. This paper aims at explaining the considerations that laid the ground for the expert panel when arriving at the proposed definition and hopes to address some of the concerns and criticisms launched with the definition.
