Criminalizing ecocide beyond the Rome Statute: Comparative domestic approaches and lessons for environmental accountability in Bangladesh

Ecocide is an emerging concept in contemporary international environmental law and international criminal law jurisprudence. It has not yet been recognized as an independent international crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. However, the increasing scholarly discourse and domestic legislative initiatives have intensified discussions regarding criminal responsibility for severe environmental harm. This study primarily examines two broad concepts, i.e., the evolution of ecocide from a normative concept into an emerging framework of environmental criminal liability, and selected domestic approaches to criminalizing environmental destruction. The doctrinal and comparative legal methodologies have been employed to analyze influential formulations by Higgins (2010) and the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide (2021), as well as legislative and constitutional developments in selected countries. The purpose of this undertaking is to go through six analytical criteria, namely severe environmental harm, widespread damage, long-term ecological consequences, mental elements, corporate accountability, and enforcement mechanisms. The study finds that while no uniform model of ecocide criminalization has yet emerged, several jurisdictions increasingly recognize forms of environmental destruction that approximate contemporary ecocide standards. In contrast, Bangladesh possesses an extensive body of environmental legislation and constitutional commitments to environmental protection, but its regulatory framework lacks a coherent mechanism for preventing ecocide, revealing significant gaps in environmental harm thresholds, corporate criminal liability, preventive obligations, and access to environmental justice.