Ignasi Bernat Molina

ABSTRACT This introduction will begin with a reconstruction of the history of the term ‘ecocide’, situating it in its broader social and material context. Here, it will pay particular attention to how the term was bound up with the politics of anti-imperialist radicalism, as well as the contested nature of international institutions. Following on from this, it will outline the more contemporary emergence of the legal term, and its enmeshment with a very different international political scene.

ABSTRACT Stop Ecocide’s proposal to criminalize ecocide under the International Criminal Court relies on states’ capacity to punish offenders, often focusing narrowly on immediate ecological harm rather than structural causes. Recent scholarship highlights the state’s infrastructural role in enabling environmental crime through legal and economic frameworks facilitating capital accumulation.

6 BEYOND THE AMORAL STATE: AN EDUCATOR STATE In the earliest moment of the crisis when uncertainty become paramount, the state portrayed an image of protector and carer. The state presented itself as protective which also helped to give meaning in the harsh moments of impasse when a social reproduction crisis was becoming evident.