Ecocídio: proposta de uma política criminalizadora de delitos ambientais internacionais ou tipo penal propriamente dito?

Abstract

The trend of criminalizing the misconducts against the environment arises from the inefficiency of other branches of the law to ensure the protection of this essential asset, so important for the maintenance of life. Given the universal nature of the damages and the consequences of the misconducts against the environment it is imperative for international criminal law define certain harmful conducts. In this context, several technical-scientific-cultural movements seek to have the massive damage to the environment: the ecocide, considered an international crime. This article aims to determine if and to what extent the movement against the ecocide can be understood as a broad scientific movement in the search of a larger protection of the environment, in face of the increase of international environmental crime; or a specific, limited, definition of crime with an international implication, having an objective description of an abstract and limited behavior and capable of individualizing the agent’s conduct. This research applies the dialectic method, seeking to understand the object from the perspective of the following notions, which are inherent to reality: totality, change and contradiction. The conclusion is that there is an ecocide which is related to a “public policy project” which is to be adopted by the nations, derived from the inclusion of the ecocide misconduct in the international law; and the “crime” ecocide, delimited and exhaustive, restricted to the described conduct. The distinction allows the correct definition and comprehensiveness of both, avoiding the emptying of crime (by imprecision and vagueness) and the reduction of public policy (restricted to the definition of conduct).