ERCS is scoping the feasibility and options for incorporating ecocide into Scots law.
Ecocide has increasingly gained attention as a means to hold the worst polluters to account for severe and widespread environmental destruction.
Stop Ecocide International‘s campaign to make ecocide an international crime is gaining momentum, while the European Parliament voted to criminalise cases ‘comparable to ecocide’ within the EU in February 2024.
Criminalising ecocide in Scotland
In November 2023, Monica Lennon MSP launched the public consultation on her proposed Member’s Bill to introduce ecocide law in Scotland. This proposal focusses on deterring ecocide-level environmental damage by making it an offence with criminal sanctions including fines and imprisonment for up to 20 years. Read our consultation response.
Scoping a Domestic Legal Framework for Ecocide in Scotland
The report, commissioned by ERCS and co-authored by legal experts Dr Rachel Killean and Prof Damien Short, evaluates pathways for criminalising ecocide in Scotland.
Recommendations
- Priority should be given to ensuring appropriate investment into environmental
enforcement agencies (SEPA) and existing methods of environmental protection.
While an increasing number of states are introducing crimes of ecocide or other
serious crimes, there is no evidence in our report that introducing a new serious
environmental crime makes a substantial difference to environmental
protection on its own. - Adopting language like the definition offered by the Expert Panel may play an important role in increasing international support for a new international crime of ecocide. If this is the primary goal in pursuing criminalisation, then this is an important consideration.
- However, if seeking to adopt a workable domestic crime, Scotland should
consider whether the Expert Panel’s definition can be strengthened to reflect
the domestic context. Amendments might include an indicative list of harmful
acts, a less onerous gravity threshold, and forms of liability that encompasses
legal persons and avoid the inappropriate criminalisation of workers. - A new crime of ecocide might usefully be accompanied by enhanced protections for whistle-blowers or those protesting ecocidal practices. Such measures could encourage public engagement with the crime’s enforcement. However, protecting whistle-blowers and protesters are important aspects of environmental protection in their own right, and are not dependent on a new crime being introduced.
- When designing appropriate penalties, it is worth considering i) how to ensure that corporations are unable to externalise the cost of fines e.g. through equity fines; and ii) the possibility of more environmental restorative methods.