Both in peacetime and during armed conflict, environmental crimes in combination with large-scale corruption have a hugely destructive impact on ecosystems and the climate and undermine the rights of communities, local populations, and indigenous peoples. Establishing criminal responsibility for these kinds of crimes involves immense challenges for national and international law enforcement agencies due to the high complexity of these crimes and their connection with networks of transnational organized crime.
A new approach in addressing the immense complexity of such crimes against ecosystems is the integration of new technologies such as AI, satellites, etc. into the system of criminal investigation and prosecution. This project is premised on the idea that an effective system of crime control for crimes against ecosystems can only be realized by the synchronized interplay of different fragmented disciplines and actors. ECO-CRIM-NET will overcome the fragmentation and bring together scholars and practitioners from different disciplines and regions to gain new knowledge about the design and modus operandi of crimes against ecosystems and on how these crimes can be addressed by legal means with the support of new technologies. In taking the “Realpolitik”-approach, this project leaves the purely legalistic dimension by integrating computer science, political science, sociology, biology, anthropology, and criminology into the project and will therefore present a new and unique approach for the development of new models of crime control by integrating new technologies into the monitoring, investigation, and prosecution of crimes against ecosystems.
ECO-CRIM-NET started the network acitivities by building a solid foundation of scholars and practitioners in the field. The first collaboration was a collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law to discuss the fundamental challenges of modern technolgies and self-determination regarding (environmental) crime control. The next step was an interdiscplinary workshop about the investigation of complex crimes to gain more knowledge on investigation strategies for crimes against ecosystems.
This was followed by a workshop on “Corporate involvement in Atrocity Crimes, Gross Human Rights Violations, and Ecocide: Patterns of involvement, strategies for prevention and accountability”. This workshop helped to map patterns of involvement, the roles of states and their complicity as well as of non-state actors, and political and conflict contexts.
The inaugural official kick-off event, which convened all members of ECO-CRIM-NET, occurred in October 2024. The objective of this inaugural network event was to identify the challenges, legal foundations, and monitoring and detection methods for the effective documentation and possible prosecution of large-scale crimes against the environment. At the last day the results were disseminated to a broader audience and the public through a podium discussion. The objective of this second segment of the event was twofold: first, to facilitate a more extensive discussion with a more diverse audience; and second, to raise public awareness regarding the aforementioned topic.
Subsequently, a second event was held in April 2025, which was entitled ‘New Actors in the Fight against Environmental Crimes’. The workshop centered on the various new actors within an holistic and pluralistic network of environmental crime control, with a particular emphasis on Ukraine. A particular emphasis was placed on the role of private and academic entities in the monitoring, investigation, and prosecution of large-scale environmental crimes during the course of the workshop.
It became evident during the course of all events that a new generation of scholars and practitioners is required to focus on environmental criminality and the interplay of law and science and to receive a comprehensive understanding of other legal systems and their interplay. A meaningful implementation of elements of foreign legal systems at the national level, as well as the smooth realization of the objectives of international and supranational justice, require a mutual understanding between legal systems that adhere to different traditions in their normative foundations. Therefore, the PhD workshop on ‘Comparative Criminal Law’ in May 2025 was a logical continuation within the ECO-CRIM-NET to establish and educate about the fundamental instruments for the utilization of comparative criminal law within legal scholarship and in cultivating a new generation of critical and progressive legal mindsets to combat environmental crimes.
Furthermore, ECO-CRIM-Net functioned as a co-host for the regional consultations for the policy on environmental crime of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC). This meeting convened scholars from the European region to deliberate the novel ICC OTP policy on environmental crimes.
Environmental crimes in combination with large-scale corruption have a hugely destructive impact on ecosystems and the climate and undermine the rights of communities, local populations, and indigenous peoples. Crimes like illegal unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing), illegal mining, waste trafficking, and climate and pollution crimes are causing great harm to the environment, the climate, and the people. But events in the current armed conflict also demonstrate that crime against ecosystems pose a severe threat to the international community as well. Establishing criminal responsibility for these kinds of crimes involves immense challenges for national and international law enforcement agencies due to the high complexity of these crimes and their connection with networks of transnational organized crime.
A new approach in addressing the immense complexity of such crimes against ecosystems is the integration of new technologies such as AI, satellites, etc. into the system of criminal investigation and prosecution. This project is premised on the idea that an effective system of crime control for crimes against ecosystems can only be realized by the synchronized interplay of different fragmented disciplines and actors. ECO-CRIM-NET will overcome the fragmentation and bring together scholars and practitioners from different disciplines and regions to gain new knowledge about the design and modus operandi of crimes against ecosystems and on how these crimes can be addressed by legal means with the support of new technologies. In taking the “Realpolitik”-approach, this project leaves the purely legalistic dimension by integrating computer science, political science, sociology, biology, anthropology, and criminology into the project and will therefore present a new and unique approach for the development of new models of crime control by integrating new technologies into the monitoring, investigation, and prosecution of crimes against ecosystems.
