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11 B.U. Int'l L. J. 327 (1993)
Defending the Right to a Healthy Environment: Toward a Crime of Geocide in International Law

handle is hein.journals/builj11 and id is 333 raw text is: DEFENDING THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT: TOWARD A CRIME OF GEOCIDE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW Lynn Berat* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ............................................. 327 II. THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT AS PART OF CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL LAW ........................ 329 A. The Nature of Customary International Law ........... 329 B. The Rise of International Environmental Law .......... 330 C. The 1980s and 1990s ................................... 332 D. Regional Enactments ................................... 334 E. State Practice ........................................... 336 F. The Right to a Healthy Environment as Jus Cogens ..... 338 III. TOWARD A CRIME OF GEOCD . ........................... 340 A. International Environmental Crimes .................... 341 B. Geocide Defined ....................................... 342 C. A Geocide Convention ................................. 343 D. Questions of Liability .................................. 344 E. Jurisdictional Issues .................................... 345 IV. CONCLUSION ............................................... 348 I. INTRODUCTION Beginning with the celebration of the first Earth Day in 1970, the inter- national community has increasingly focused its attention on issues of environmental concern. The growing interest has paralleled an ever accelerating pace of destruction of the planet's ecosystem. The industrial- ized nations have only recently begun to adopt environmentally sound policies. Yet, there continues to be resistance on many fronts out of fear that environmentally non-destructive technologies will be too costly and cause too much interference with economic growth.' Despite their * National Research Council Fellow, Yale Law School. University of Texas, J.D.; Yale University, Ph.D. Dr. Berat is a member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund for which she does pro bono work and the Environmental Defense Fund. 1 In the United States, businesses often oppose stricter environmental standards on the grounds that they will damage profitability. Nevertheless, in the industrialized nations, a rising number of companies, especially in the United States, Japan, and 327