Legal and institutional framework for the protection of the environment in the activities of international criminal justice bodies

The article examines topical issues of the formation and development of the legal and institutional foundations of environmental protection in the activities of international criminal justice bodies. The role and significance of international treaties, norms of international customary law, decisions of international intergovernmental organizations and their bodies, decisions of international courts in the field of formation of the legal basis for the activity of international criminal courts. The features of international legal regulation of the protection of the natural environment, the definition of serious violations of international law in the field of the environment, the conditions and elements of classifying relevant international illegal acts as international crimes, problematic issues of law enforcement in the field of bringing guilty persons to justice in the event of their committing international crimes against the environment are analyzed. The institutional principles of combating international crimes in the field of environment, the jurisdictional powers of the International Criminal Court and other bodies of international criminal justice in this field of legal relations have been studied. Current issues of the investigation of international environmental crimes in connection with the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, in particular crimes in connection with the disaster at the Kakhovska HPP, were considered. Specific proposals have been made regarding the international legal regulation of consideration of crimes against the environment, which were the result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The need for an international legal definition of the ″crime of ecocide″ and the need to refer this international crime to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which will require amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, are proposed. Mechanism for documenting and assessing damages caused to the environment in connection with the armed conflict and crimes against the environment, and compensation for such damages, were analyzed. In order to compensate for the damages caused to Ukraine and its natural environment, it is proposed to create a special international commission within the framework of the UN and to strengthen national legal mechanisms on this issue, in particular to adopt relevant legislative acts and ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

international court, legal framework, institutional framework, environment, international crime, ecocide, responsibility