Proving Ecocide: the plight of pangolins as a case study for fusing ecological science with international law

Focusing on the case study of pangolins, this article examines how ecological science can contribute to proving ecocide and other environmental crimes before international courts. It explores multiple vertices along which ecological science can assist forensic processes, including the widespread, long-term, and severity elements of ecocide, as well as gravity, causation, intention, linkage, and the classification of victims. The authors argue that the relationship between science and law needs to be reconceptualized. Instead of the traditional fact-value binary, it advocates for increased recognition that both science and law involve a mix of fact-based and value-dependent assessments. At the same time, the study highlights challenges when incorporating disparate disciplines with separate ontologies and methodologies, including the erosion of fair trial protections and the misunderstanding of requisite standards and methodologies, as well as the risk of outsourcing factual and legal assessments from the courts to scientific researchers. These insights are designed to assist the operationalization of ecocide, and other environmental crimes applicable during both war and peacetime, when applied to living species subjected to multi-variate anthropogenic threats.