Godwin, Eleanor 
ORCID: 0009-0003-8756-0405
(2024)
Towards an Effective Law of Ecocide: Identifying and Assessing Domestic and International Contradictions in Environmental Law and Regulation
PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.
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Abstract
In 2010, Polly Higgins reignited the call to criminalise environmental damage by invoking the concept of ‘ecocide’. Similarly, activists like Greta Thunberg and groups such as Extinction Rebellion and FridaysforFuture have used the same language to keep the issues of climate change and the environmental crisis in the public eye, adding to the demand to hold states, individuals, and corporations accountable for environmental crimes. The campaign group Stop Ecocide International has led calls for a law of ecocide to be added to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Few studies have critically examined this law prohibiting ecocide, with none comparing the proposed law to the current attempts to deal with environmental crimes. Through an in-depth systematic analysis of current domestic environmental regulation and international environmental law, this thesis examines the contradictions in current legal and regulatory attempts to address environmental crimes. It evaluates the extent of convergence or divergence in legal and regulatory responses to environmental crimes at domestic and international levels and assesses how the current demands to create a law of ecocide by Stop Ecocide International address these contradictions. This thesis uses a critical approach and a methodological framework of Max Weber’s ideal type, creating original ideal-type frameworks to measure the effectiveness of current environmental law and regulation. Using empirical data from 16 regulators and legal databases, and 4 case studies, this thesis provides a systematic review of environmental legal and regulatory framework at the level of the British nation state and in international fora. It reveals four overarching contradictions in current attempts to deal with environmental crimes through the law: (i) contradictions in lax enforcement (ii) contradictions in regimes of permission; (iii) fragmentation, complexity, and ambiguity in environmental law frameworks; and (iv) contradictions in legal principles. When examining these contradictions against Stop Ecocide International’s proposed law, this thesis argues that the law would likely encounter the same issues as other laws attempting to curb environmental crimes. Therefore, the thesis concludes, the law to prohibit ecocide does not overcome these contradictions, and even if enacted, its effectiveness and impact would be questionable.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice |
| Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Aug 2025 14:33 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Aug 2025 14:33 |
| DOI: | 10.17638/03189605 |
| Supervisors: |
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| URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3189605 |
| Disclaimer: | The University of Liverpool is not responsible for content contained on other websites from links within repository metadata. Please contact us if you notice anything that appears incorrect or inappropriate. |
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