Article

Prosecuting attacks that destroy the environment : environmental crimes or humanitarian atrocities ?

Tara Weinstein

• The Georgetown international environmental law review, Vol. 17, issue 4, 2005, p. 697-722

English

Also published in Karen Hulme (ed.), Law of the environment and armed conflict, 2017.

This article studies the absence of any legal precedent of a conviction for environmental war crimes, despite the continuing destruction. It seeks to explain why no individual has been convicted and argues that individual accountability can be attained through prosecuting attacks on the environment as acts conducted to achieve a further humanitarian atrocity, as a step toward achieving the ultimate goal of prevention and prosecution of environmental destruction as an independent violation of international law.