For decades, the global response to environmental destruction has been a complex web of regulatory frameworks. These systems, detailed and often technocratic, have primarily operated on a principle of licensing harm and penalizing infractions with fines. But what happens when those fines are simply absorbed as a “cost of doing business”? The result is a system that has, by and large, failed to stem the tide of widespread, long-term environmental damage. This was the central challenge posed by Jojo Mehta of the Stop Ecocide Foundation in a recent presentation at Osgoode Hall Law School presented by the Jack & Mae Nathonson Centre on Transactional Human Rights, Crime, and Security. Her argument moves beyond tweaking existing regulations and calls for a fundamental shift in our legal consciousness: the international recognition of “ecocide” as a crime.
The Deterrence Factor of Criminal Law
The core of the case for ecocide law lies in the adaption of the term in criminal law. Environmental regulations exist in a sphere of administrative compliance, whereas criminal law carries an undeniable ethical and moral weight which could create more opportunities for deterrence rather than the acceptance of fines, for instance, as a ‘cost of business’. It draws a societal line in the sand, declaring certain acts not merely “non-compliant” but inherently wrong.
Mehta pointed out that corporations are, on the whole, rational actors. Their primary driver is profit, not ideological or purposeful environmental destruction. However, the pursuit of profit has led to the degradation of the very ecosystems we rely on for survival. Fines have proven to be an insufficient deterrent. Criminal law changes the calculus entirely. When individual criminal responsibility enters the picture, so does the risk of reputational catastrophe and, crucially, the loss of personal liberty. Suddenly, the potential cost becomes directly relevant to shareholders and executives in a way a corporate fine never could be. It is a powerful systemic lever that forces a recalibration of risk.