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CHAPTER 2. COMPLEXITY AND INTERRELATEDNESS IN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION ‘Living wild species are like a library of books still unread. Our heedless destruction of them is akin to burning the library without ever having read its books.” Understanding the roots and sources of International Environmental Law (IEL) is a necessary step in evaluating how ecocide, as a new concept, could help preserve biodiversity and fight climate change. This chapter aims to highlight the cornerstones of the history of IEL, the leading international conventions on wildlife and biodiversity protection, and the tendencies of relevant regulations. In recent decades, IEL has become a complex framework, and the different segments of regulation necessarily affect how these instruments are able to achieve the stated goals. The interrelatedness of environmental regulation has gained growing attention in practice and literature. Due to the scope of ecocide, as an overlapping legislative term appearing in different branches of legislation — criminal law, environmental law, human rights — it is crucial to analyse whether ecocide can serve as a valuable tool for biodiversity conservation and wildlife protection. Some aspects of this topic, for example the correlation between transnational environmental crime and ecocide, are detailed in the upcoming chapters due to the specific character of the issues. ‘Dingell, John: Balancing on the Brink of Extinction: The Endangered Species Act and Lessons for the Future. Island Press, 1990. 31
