Ecocide Law Advisory
The Ecocide Law Advisory is a partnership between Climate Counsel and the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe. Together we provide expert legal advice and training on the drafting and implementation of ecocide laws.
We bring together former UN lawyers and leading academics to support the people building these laws and putting them to use: parliamentarians drafting national ecocide legislation, law enforcement officers investigating alleged acts of ecocide, civil society organisations monitoring how the laws are applied, corporate actors working to comply with them, and states and advocates pursuing the addition of ecocide to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Ecocide is generally defined as unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment.
Scotland
Scotland came closer than any other part of the UK to criminalising ecocide. The Ecocide (Scotland) Bill, brought forward by Monica Lennon MSP and introduced in May 2025, would create a standalone criminal offence of ecocide, with penalties of up to 20 years' imprisonment for individuals and unlimited fines for organisations.
Ecocide Law Advisory played a pivotal role in shaping this legislation, providing expert legal guidance and support during the drafting process, and helping ensure the Bill was both legally robust and aligned with international efforts to criminalise ecocide. Kate Mackintosh, co-founder of Ecocide Law Advisory, sits on Monica Lennon's Expert Advisory Group for the Bill. The Bill defines ecocide as causing severe environmental harm either recklessly or intentionally, where "severe" means serious adverse effects that are either widespread or long-term, and it allows an employer to be held liable where an employee commits ecocide.
In February 2026, MSPs voted 90 to 26 to pass the Bill at Stage 1 — the first time a UK parliament had backed standalone ecocide legislation, with cross-party support and engagement from the Scottish Government. The Bill fell at committee in April 2026, shortly before the Scottish Parliament election, but its sponsor has pledged to reintroduce it in the next session, building on the foundation already laid.
Brazil
Climate Counsel, through Ecocide Law Advisory, helped draft and advocate for the Ecocide Bill now before Brazil's Congress — legislation designed to protect the Amazon and other threatened biomes by holding senior decision-makers criminally responsible for the most severe environmental harm.
Working closely with the political party PSOL and Ecoe Brasil, Ecocide Law Advisory contributed in-depth research and direct input into the bill's language, drawing on its experience advising lawmakers on ecocide laws in the EU and beyond. Paolo Busse and Richard J. Rogers were instrumental in shaping and advocating for the bill. Climate Counsel was also part of the coalition supporting it, alongside Ecoe Brasil, Observatório do Clima and Stop Ecocide International. Bill No. 2933/2023 would insert ecocide into Brazil's Environmental Crimes Law, drawing on the international definition of ecocide and targeting those whose decisions knowingly cause severe, widespread or long-term harm, with penalties of roughly 5 to 15 years' imprisonment. It is explicitly framed to strengthen protection of the Amazon and of the Indigenous and traditional peoples who depend on it.
On 8 November 2023, the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee of the Chamber of Deputies approved the text of the bill — a crucial first step — and it continues its passage through Congress.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is among the European countries moving to make ecocide a crime, through an initiative bill that would give Dutch criminal law an explicitly eco-centric foundation for the first time.
On 30 November 2023, then–Member of Parliament Lammert van Raan of the Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren) submitted the Ecocide Criminalisation Act to the Dutch House of Representatives. The bill would amend the Criminal Code to criminalise ecocide in its own right — a significant shift, since existing Dutch environmental offences are framed primarily around protecting human health rather than the environment itself. Its definition follows the international consensus definition of ecocide: the wilful infliction of serious, and either widespread or long-term, damage to the environment.
Ecocide Law Advisory provided technical legal expertise in support of the bill, which van Raan developed in close cooperation with lawyers Femke Wijdekop, Judith Alkema and Abel van Wijk. Van Raan went on to initiate and chair the working group behind the Manual on the National Criminalisation of Ecocide, one of Ecocide Law Advisory's flagship resources for lawmakers.
In early 2024, the Advisory Division of the Council of State (Raad van State) reviewed the bill. It recognised that the proposal reflects national and international trends toward protecting the natural environment, while raising questions about legal precision and how the offence should align with the revised EU Environmental Crimes Directive. The bill remains before Parliament, where its text is expected to be refined in response to that scrutiny before it can progress to a vote.
