Development of International Criminal Law addressing Environmental Harm. There is a long history of environmental damage during armed conflict, both as a deliberate tactic of war and as an off-shoot of lawful military operations, as well as during times of social upheaval.259 According to the Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Bible, during the Ninth Century Before Xxxxxx, the Israelites engaged in tactics of altering the local environment in an attack against the Moabites.260 Likewise, the prohibition of environmental damage has a long pedigree. Restrictions on harming the natural environment were set out in the Old Testament.261 Similarly, Xxxxxxxx’s companion, the first Caliph Xxx Xxxx, is said to have instructed his Muslim army to avoid burning or harming trees in the Seventh Century Anno Domini.262 Despite these early developments and examples of environmental harm being used as a tactic of war, international laws concerning environmental damage have been slow to develop. It was not until war broke out in Vietnam in the 1960s, that a greater awareness of the need to collectively take measures to protect the environment emerged, particular during times of armed conflict.263 This fed the impetus for the development of treaties specifically protecting the environment, particularly under the rubric of international humanitarian law, and included calls for the fifth Geneva Convention on the protection of the environment. The term ecocide was first widely used by a plant biologist, Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx, to encapsulate what he described as ‘willful, permanent destruction of environments in which people can live 258 Peacetime environmental law remains effective during times of armed conflict to extent that it is compatible with international humanitarian law; International Law Commission, Draft Articles on the Effects of Armed Conflicts on Treaties (2011), Annex - Indicative list of treaties referred to in article 7. See also Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx Xxxx “Le droit international humanitaire et l’avis consultatif de la Cour internationale de Justice sur la licéité de la menace ou de l’emploi x’xxxxx nucléaires” (1997) 823 RICR 37; cited in Xxxxxxx (1997), p.32, 37. 259 Xxxxxxxxx (2005), p.700. 260 See Bible: Revised Standard Version, 2 Kings 3:24-25. 261 Bible: Revised Standard Version, Deuteronomy 20:19 (“[i]f you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field h...
