Can we prosecute capitalist crimes against life? Bringing environmental destruction to trial
Can international criminal law hold corporate decision-makers accountable for environmental destruction? This episode explores the promise and limits of ecocide law in confronting the structures of capitalism.
Series 8 | Episode 2
Episode information
Duration: 28:32
Keywords: international criminal law, environmental crimes, corporate responsibility, accountability
When corporate operations precipitate severe ecological destruction, existing legal frameworks routinely treat the fallout as a civil liability, allowing corporations to absorb financial penalties as standard operational costs. In this episode, Lukas, Philip and Selinay analyse the movement to codify ecocide as an international crime, shifting accountability from corporate entities to individual executive decision-makers.
Examining the Deepwater Horizon disaster alongside Chevron’s uncollected judgment in Ecuador, the discussion interrogates a central question of legal political economy: can international law effectively constrain the underlying structure of capitalism, or will an economic model predicated on perpetual growth and extraction inevitably absorb legislative reform to serve as its own institutional alibi?
