Waging War Against the World: The Need to Move from War Crimes to Environmental Crimes

The international community has been more hesitant in accounting for the environmental consequences of war. All that the international community has been able to negotiate is scattered collateral references in a variety of treaties and conventions. One immediate task will be to consolidate these references into a single document or treaty. A more daunting task, of which this easy shall provide a brief overview, is to develop a mechanism to ensure compliance with these standards, to deter deviation therefrom, and to allocate responsibility for wrongdoing.

More specifically, this essay considers the ability of the International Criminal Court to perform such a task. When all is said and done, the International Criminal Court may not be particularly well-suited to sanction environmentally destructive behavior. This proposition runs counter to the thinking that international humanitarian law may offer the possibility of an effective response to wartime environmental destruction.