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Leading barristers get involved in ecocide campaign

Governance | Tania Mason | 9 Sep 2011

A number of top-flight lawyers including Michael Mansfield QC are volunteering their expertise for a day later this month to take part in a mock Ecocide Trial at the Supreme Court.

The trial is being organised by civil society organisation the Hamilton Group as part of a campaign to raise awareness of issues around Ecocide and to have them discussed by government, businesses, communities, the media, schools and universities both nationally and locally.

The Hamilton Group is a not-for-profit organisation encouraging businesses, organisations and communities to bring responsibility for the Earth to the forefront of their decision-making.

The Ecocide Trial will proceed as if the crime of ecocide has already been adopted by the United Nations, as proposed by British barrister and environmental lawyer Polly Higgins in April last year.

Higgins wants ecocide to be designated the fifth “crime against peace” alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes.  

Ecocide is described as the environmental equivalent of genocide and defined as “the mass damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished”.

The Hamilton Group contends that if ecocide was accepted as a crime under international law it would have a profound effect on governments, heads of state, directors of corporations and on the Earth’s ecosystems.

Mock trial involving real barristers, witnesses and jurors

On 30 September, the Supreme Court will host a one-day mock trial in which Michael Mansfield QC and his legal team will prosecute a fictional chief executive for the crime of ecocide.  The CEO will be defended by Nigel Lickley QC and his legal team, with the CEO played by an actor.

Members of the public have been invited to apply to be jurors and the day’s proceedings are not scripted – it is ultimately for the jury to decide whether the crime of ecocide is made out and whether the Earth Right to Life has been breached. During the trial, real-life experts will be called as witnesses.

The mock chief executive will be charged with any one of the following crimes; which one will be determined on the day:

• Deforestation of the Amazon
• Arctic drilling
• Fracking for shale gas in Nigeria
• Major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
• Bauxite mining of the Niyamgiri mountain
• Unconventional tar sands extraction in Canada
• Deep sea mining of the Central and Eastern Manus Basin

Before the case is heard, legal argument will be put as to whether ecocide and the Earth Right to Life should be applied to the charge against them.  

The case will be open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis and shown on TV screens outside the courtroom.  It will also be filmed and streamed live to social networking sites.

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