International Criminal Law and the Future of Humanity: A Theory of the Crime of Omnicide
This paper argues that current international criminal law should be expanded to include omnicide, or the intentional destruction of humanity. I claim that omnicide is not a special case of crimes against humanity or genocide, but is distinct from both in a number of important ways. I further argue that establishing a specialized convention on omnicide is urgent given the exponential development of dual-use emerging technologies, which could enable a large number of state and nonstate actors to unilaterally bring about the extinction of humanity. Although I do not intend to outline a complete theory of the crime of omnicide, I do attempt to lay a foundation for future research on this important topic.
Here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3777140
I love the subject, and thanks for the post. I’d even include some sort of “manslaughter-like” humanicide—i.e., assuming a highrisk of destroying humanity.
But I don’t even dream with anything like that before we criminalize nuclear (or WMD in general) first strike.