Analysis of the International Criminal Court’s New Policy in Ensnaring Environmental Crimes Based on the Mandate of the Rome Statute to Strengthen the Enforcement of International Criminal Law

Abstract

Environmental destruction on a global scale has reached an escalation level that threatens the existence of human civilization. While the destructive impact of natural exploitation is very real, law enforcement against environmentally destructive intellectual actors at the global level often clashes with the absence of universally binding jurisdiction. The International Criminal Court (ICC) as the last bastion of global criminal justice has historically focused only on traditional crimes against humanity. However, through the issuance of the Policy on Handling Environmental Damage in December 2025 by the ICC Prosecutor's Office, there has been a significant paradigm shift. This research examines and analyzes in depth the juridical construction of the new policy within the framework of international criminal law. The research method used is normative legal research with a statutory approach and a conceptual approach. The results of the study show that this new policy does not create new criminal acts outside the Rome Statute, but rather expands the teleological interpretation. The ICC Prosecutor's Office integrates the dimension of environmental damage into the parameters of the investigation and prosecution of the four core crimes in Article 5 of the Rome Statute: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. The application of an interactive and interdisciplinary approach to investigation, as well as the affirmation of support for national justice through the principle of complementarity, proves that international criminal law now has a progressive instrument to eradicate impunity for global ecological crimes.