Free Trade Agreements, Private Courts and Environmental Exploitation: Disconnected Policies, Denials and Moral Disengagement

Although there is strong scientific consensus that climate change and environmental degradation are occurring, there is also a significant body of opinion that is sceptical about, or denies the validity of, evidence for this. However it is not solely the nature of differing views about global warming or ecological disaster that is being contested but the case for or against intervention and regulation in the market. At an international level, gestures toward ‘sustainability’ are (i) compromised by combining them with declarations of the need for continued economic growth, and (ii) undermined by the arrangements put in place by existing and new transnational trade agreements. The paper examines these views and developments, and the patterns of denial, disconnection and fragmentation they display

Green Criminology: Reflections, Connections, Horizons

This paper traces aspects of the development of a ‘green’ criminology. It starts with personal reflections and then describes the emergence of explicit statements of a green criminological perspective. Initially these statements were independently voiced, in different parts of the world but they reflected shared concerns. These works have found unification as a ‘green’, ‘eco-global’ or ‘conservation’ criminology. The paper reviews the classifications available when talking about not only legally-defined crimes but also legally perpetrated harms, as well as typologies of such harms and crimes. It then looks at the integration of ‘green’ and ‘traditional’ criminological thinking before briefly exploring four dimensions of concern for today and the future.DOI: 10.5204/ijcjsd.v3i2.172</jats:p

Challenges, responses and collaborations concerning environmental crimes and harms in Bangladesh

As Kailemia (2018) observes, ‘environmental crimes are an area of increasing concern, not only because of [their] globalised nature’ but because these crimes have ‘impacts beyond the capacity of criminal justice systems of most states to comprehend or address’. How then can criminal justice agencies, particularly in the global south, respond to national and transnational environmental challenges? This paper takes the case of Bangladesh and outlines examples of anthropogenic activities that are destroying biodiversity and polluting the environment in this country. It then situates these crimes and harms in the context of environmental law, and the work of police and environment agencies, in Bangladesh. The paper concludes with a consideration of future options for environmental law enforcement in Bangladesh

Ecocide, Genocide, Capitalism and Colonialism: Consequences for indigenous peoples and glocal ecosystems environments

Continuing injustices and denial of rights of indigenous peoples are part of the long legacy of colonialism. Parallel processes of exploitation and injustice can be identified in relation to non-human species and/or aspects of the natural environment. International law can address some extreme examples of the crimes and harms of colonialism through the idea and legal definition of genocide, but the intimately related notion of ecocide that applies to nature and the environment is not yet formally accepted within the body of international law. In the context of this special issue reflecting on the development of green criminology, the article argues that the concept of ecocide provides a powerful tool. To illustrate this, the article explores connections between ecocide, genocide, capitalism and colonialism and discusses impacts on indigenous peoples and on local and global (glocal) eco-systems

How can we develop an increased awareness of equality & diversity issues amongst our staff

This paper charts a service development initiative, which consisted of a valuing diversity pathway including awareness training days for NHS staff in one Mental Health and Learning Disability Trust. The purpose of the training days was to give staff and service users the opportunity to explore each other’s perspectives, beliefs, values, knowledge and behaviours to better prepare them to tackle inequalities and improve access to services. The main aim of a valuing diversity awareness pathway as stated in this paper is to give staff and service users the opportunity to ensure that staff working in all care services are better prepared to tackle inequalities and to improve access to services for vulnerable groups of people such as those with a learning disability and others with mental health issues requiring treatment. It is recognised that to meet diverse needs both staff and service users need to recognise the value of their differences. The South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SWYPFT) and the University of Huddersfield worked together to produce the pathway. Both of these organisations are committed to valuing diversity and they have a strong history of partnership working. The following paper provides background information, an overview of the innovative approach taken to develop the pathway and a more detailed account of the design, delivery and evaluation of the training days

Arcologies, Eco-shelters and Environmental Exemption: Constructing New Divisions and Inequalities in the Anthropocene

This article reviews some trends in the sociotechnical development of urban spaces and controlled environments. It provides past and present examples of spatial, volumetric and symbolic constructions that have functioned to enclose or divide before describing a new context of markets that promise to provide habitats or settlements offering ‘environmental exemption’. In other words, this is the ability to pay for access to ‘clean’, ‘green’, ‘pure’ and ‘politically free’ environments. Examples of existing and proposed eco-enclaves of various kinds are given and discussed. The conclusion considers some implications of these possible projects of ‘salvation’ or ‘segregation’.&#x0D

Eco-crimes and Ecocide at Sea: Toward a new blue criminology

This essay adopts an interdisciplinary approach to consider the meaning of ‘eco-crime’ in the aquatic environment and draws on marine science, the study of criminal law and environmental law, and the criminology of environmental harms. It reviews examples of actions and behaviours of concern, such as offences committed by transnational organised crime and the legal and illegal over-exploitation of marine resources, and it discusses responses related to protection, prosecution and punishment, including proposals for an internationally accepted and enforced law of ecocide. One key element of the policy and practice of ending ecocide is the call to prioritise the adoption of technologies that are benign and renewable. Our essay concludes with a description of the ‘Almadraba’ method of fishing to illustrate that there are ways in which the principles of sustainability and restoration can be applied in an ethical and just way in the context of modern fisheries

Rosa del Olmo Prize: Introductory Essay

Academic prizes have three problems: they feed an individualist ethos, perpetuate the idea of the ‘marketplace of ideas’ as a fair and even playing field, and build a stereotype of white, Western men as the ultimate knowledge creators. However, prizes can also challenge stereotypes and help democratise knowledge creation by enlarging the visibility of communitarian knowledge creation beyond Western scripts and outside hegemonic masculinities. The International Journal for Crime, Justice, and Social Democracy, committed to cognitive justice, knowledge democratisation, and encouraging voices on the periphery to partake in global academic debate, established the Rosa del Olmo Prize. Seeking to challenge criminological stereotypes about who can create knowledge that contributes to the development of criminology, the Journal honours Venezuelan criminologist Rosa del Olmo (1937-2000) through this award. Rosa symbolises critical, feminist, decolonial criminology working to advance social justice

A Criminology of Extinction: Biodiversity, extreme consumption and the vanity of species resurrection

This article explores an issue pertaining to the commodification of nature and related market processes—reviving extinct species. It begins by offering an overview of the aesthetic, economic, scientific and ethical reasons to preserve biological diversity. The article then considers how and why biological diversity is actually being reduced at an unprecedented rate—the ways in which, and the explanations for why, human acts and omissions are directly and indirectly, separately and synergistically, causing extinctions—quite possibly of species that we do not even know exist. From here, the article draws on the growing body of research on resurrecting species—a process known as de-extinction—to contemplate the questions raised about the permanency of extinction, as well as whether we should revive extinct species and the meaning and criminological implications of doing so