Abstract
This thesis introduces the reader to the highly complex field of international environmental harms. This area of international law takes up a significant portion of the overall natural degradation of the planet, but still remains on the outer slopes of attention and concern within the international community of states. Given the significance of a healthy environment in general it is of utmost importance that international environmental crimes receive more attention to put an end to the thriving environmental destruction.
The first chapter introduces into the complex topic and reveals the threat potential of international environmental harms. The second part approaches the current situation of legal handling regarding international environmental harms. The third chapter then raises the question, whether and how criminalisation can be a calming factor for this problem. The following parts explore possible international fora to handle international environmental crimes more properly in the future. The options to rely on the existing International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court or to create a potential International Court for the Environment and a World Environmental Organisation will be examined carefully.
This work outlines that international environmental crimes should not be taken lightly, as they largely affect the global community as a whole. For an effective way to combat international environmental crimes a centralised comprehensive approach on the international level is needed. Within the range of intergovernmental organisations and international courts a fictional new World Environmental Organisation and the existing International Criminal Court shine out. Therefore the foundation of a World Environmental Organisation as well as an “environmental reformation”, to explicitly open up the court’s jurisdiction for international environmental crimes, of the International Criminal Court are being promoted as vital to get international environmental crimes under control.