Reflective Contribution: Establishing Planetary Boundaries to Safeguard the Health of the Planet: Ecosystems as Victims and Legal Interests

Abstract

CRIMICLIMA seminarThe first session of the CRIMICLIMA UJI-2023-02 seminar explored the connections between green criminology, planetary justice and environmental criminal law. Through presentations by Gauthier Martens, Rita Faria, Pablo Serra-Palao, and Nigel South, the limitations of existing legislation in addressing the ecological challenges of the Anthropocene were explored. The speakers emphasised the importance of recognising ecosystems as victims with moral and legal status, rethinking ecological crimes beyond formal legality and integrating scientific thresholds, such as planetary boundaries, into criminal law. The seminar also emphasised the urgency of holding corporate and state actors accountable and proposed a pluralist theory of ecological justice. Overall, the seminar called for a normative transformation towards an ecological criminal policy based on resilience, science, and interspecies justice