Histories of Ecocide: Exploring Legal Imaginaries of Colonial Ecocide
This talk seeks to build a historical case for corporate ecocide by examining the actions of the East India Company particularly with respect to the Indian environment (within the boundaries of colonial India, including present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh). The central question that the talk will address is, how can we examine the business activities and actions of the East India Company, and later the British monarchy in the territory of India, through the lens of the crime of ecocide as defined by the expert panel commissioned by the Stop Ecocide Foundation which covers “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 being caused by those acts.” The idea is to extend temporal limits and examine the effects of merging present legal standards to the realities of our past, in order to provide further clarity on the consequences of criminalizing ecocide, or lack thereof.
About the speaker
Mrinalini Shinde
Mrinalini Shinde, B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), LL.M., M.Sc. is an environmental lawyer and researcher based in Germany. She is currently the lecturer for International Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Cologne. She is the Academic Manager of the International Master of Environmental Sciences programme and is affiliated with the INGENIoS (Indo-German Network Interaction of Scientists) projects at the Environmental Law Center of the University of Cologne. Her previous role was as a Fellow at the Legal Affairs division of the UNFCCC secretariat in intergovernmental matters, treaty implementation and capacity-building. She is qualified to practice law in India, has previously litigated cases in environmental and criminal law, including appearing before the National Green Tribunal in India. She has also previously advised the climate media non-profit, ‘Climate Tracker Inc.’ as Policy Associate. She is an Associate Fellow of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law and is Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the sustainable energy non-profit, ‘Student Energy.’ She is a candidate for the Doctor of Laws at the Faculty of Law, University of Cologne, & Doctor of Comparative Law at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her research focuses on international environmental law, environmental criminal law, climate change, carbon pricing & carbon taxes and corporate environmental crime. Email address: m.shinde@uni-koeln.de
According to the different speakers, the webinars will be held in German or English. This can be seen in the respective description. Further webinars are planned for WS 2022/2023.
Die Webinare bringen Praktiker:innen aus verschiedenen Disziplinen zusammen, um die Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen bei der Einführung des Straftatbestands "Ökozid" sowohl im internationalen als auch im nationalen Strafrecht zu diskutieren.
Entsprechend der unterschiedlichen Referent:innen finden die Webinare in Deutsch oder Englisch statt. Dies ist der jeweiligen Beschreibung zu entnehmen. Weitere Webinare sind für das WS 2022/2023 geplant.