VIDEO | Omnicide: Crimes Against More-than-Human in the Age of Climate Catastrophe

Although climate change-driven disasters, such as the massive Australian wildfires in 2020, have killed and devastated billions of animals and vast ecosystems, their destruction largely remains beyond the purview of ethics and law. There is, however, a growing movement to place the harms against beings other than humans on the moral, legal, and political agendas, and to develop laws and institutions capable of affording protection to them while holding accountable those responsible for their destruction. Danielle Celermajer – Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Sydney and author of Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future (Penguin, 2021) – will explore omnicide ( the killing of all ) and discuss the challenges of transforming concepts and practices of responsibility to include all those contributing to omnicide and the harms suffered by their victims. Lecture Chair: Ruti G. Teitel, Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School; Director, Center for International Law and the Institute for Global Law, Justice, and Policy; and author of Globalizing Transitional Justice (Oxford University Press, 2014)