Description
Book SynopsisThis book increases the visibility, clarity and understanding of ecological law. Ecological law is emerging as a field of law founded on systems thinking and the need to integrate ecological limits, such as planetary boundaries, into law.
Presenting new thinking in the field, this book focuses on problem areas of contemporary law including environmental law, property law, trusts, legal theory and First Nations law and explains how ecological law provides solutions. Written by ecological law experts, it does this by 1) providing an overview of shortcomings of environmental law and other areas of contemporary law, 2) presenting specific examples of these shortcomings, 3) explaining what ecological law is and how it provides solutions to the shortcomings of contemporary law, and 4) showing how society can overcome some key challenges in the transition to ecological law.
Drawing on a diverse range of case study examples including Indigenous law, ecological restoration and mi
Trade Review
"Environmental laws confer a green hue upon the ecologically destructive juggernaut that is industrial civilization, without affecting what drives it. This collection of essays explains why it is critical and urgent to transform legal and governance systems so that instead of legitimising the exploitation of Earth, they guide humans to fulfil ecologically beneficial roles within the community of life. More importantly, this book explores how to effect this vital transformation."
Cormac Cullinan, author of Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice
"No more insightful book today explores how environmental laws fail us by addressing symptoms, "externalities," not root causes. Grounding law upon ecological foundations can restore Earth’s community of life through a resilient order of evolved norms. This book is essential reading for everyone who struggles with climate disruption and biodiversity’s broken web of life."
Nicholas A. Robinson
Former Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law
Executive Governor, International Council of Environmental Law
Kerlin Professor Emeritus, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University
"This book offers a stimulating and important perspective."
Edith Brown Weiss
Former Chair of the World Bank Inspection Panel
Georgetown Law, Washington, DC
"Environmental laws confer a green hue upon the ecologically destructive juggernaut that is industrial civilization, without affecting what drives it. This collection of essays explains why it is critical and urgent to transform legal and governance systems so that instead of legitimising the exploitation of Earth, they guide humans to fulfil ecologically beneficial roles within the community of life. More importantly, this book explores how to effect this vital transformation."
Cormac Cullinan
Author of Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice
"No more insightful book today explores how environmental laws fail us by addressing symptoms, "externalities," not root causes. Grounding law upon ecological foundations can restore Earth’s community of life through a resilient order of evolved norms. This book is essential reading for everyone who struggles with climate disruption and biodiversity’s broken web of life."
Former Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law
Executive Governor, International Council of Environmental Law
Kerlin Professor Emeritus, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University
"This book offers a stimulating and important perspective."
Edith Brown Weiss
Former Chair of the World Bank Inspection Panel, Georgetown Law, Washington, DC
Table of ContentsIntroduction PART 1: Overview: from environmental to ecological law 1. The transformation of environmental law into ecological law PART 2: Problems with contemporary law: two illustrative examples 2. The targeting of environmentalists with state-corporate intelligence networks 3. Ecological jurisprudence beyond Earth: toward an outer space ethic PART 3: Solutions in ecological law 4. Ecological law in the Anthropocene 5. Restoring land, restoring law: theorizing ecological law with ecological restoration 6. Are rights of nature radical enough for ecological law? 7. Ecological jurisprudence and Indigenous relational ontologies: beyond the “ecological Indian”? 8. Conjuring sentient beings and relations in the law: rights of nature and a comparative praxis of legal cosmologies in Latin America 9. Needs-based constraints in an ecological law transition 10. The potential of the trusteeship theory for Canadian public law and environmental governance 11. African eco-philosophy on forests: a path worth exploring for the implementation of Earth jurisprudence PART 4: Challenges in the transition to ecological law 12. Green(ing) legal theory: social logics and their re-formation 13. Lawyers and ecological law 14. Learning sacrifice: legal education in the Anthropocene 15. Tribal ecological knowledge and the transition to ecological law 16. Practical pathways to ecological law: Greenprints and a bioregional, regenerative governance approach for Australia
