The Routledge Handbook of Law and the Anthropocene

The Routledge Handbook of Law and the Anthropocene provides a critical survey into the function of law and governance during a time when humans have the power to impact the Earth system. The Anthropocene is a “crisis of the earth system.” This book addresses its implications for law and legal thinking in the twenty-first century. Unpacking the challenges of the Anthropocene for advocates of ecological law and politics, this handbook pursues a range of approaches to the scientific fact of anthropocentrism, with contributions from lawyers, philosophers, geographers, and environmental and political scientists. Rather than adopting a hubristic normativity, the contributors engage methods, concepts, and legal instruments in a way that underscores the importance of humility and an expansive ethical worldview. Contributors to this volume are leading scholars and future leaders in the field. Rather than upholding orthodoxy, the handbook also problematizes received wisdom and is grounded in the conviction that the ideas we have inherited from the Holocene must all be open to question. Engaging such issues as the Capitalocene, Gaia theory, the rights of nature, posthumanism, the commons, geoengineering, and civil disobedience, this handbook will be of enormous interest to academics, students, and others with interests in ecological law and the current environmental crisis.

Table of Contents:
Contributors Interrogating the Anthropocene by Peter Burdon and James Martel PART 1 First Laws 1 The Problem with Sustainable Development in the Anthropocene Epoch: Reimagining International Environmental Law’s Mantra Principle Through Ubuntu Louis J. Kotzé, Sam Adelman, and Felix Dube 2 The Sovereign Order of Tiƞa: Enduring Traditions of Earth Jurisprudence in Africa Anatoli Ignatov 3 The Super-Factual Anthropocene and Encounters with Indigenous Law Kirsten Anker and Mark Antaki PART II Subjects of the Anthropocene 4 The Anthropocene Archive: Human and Inhuman Subjects and Sediments Kathleen Birrell 5 We, Earthbound People: Constituent Power in Entangled Times Daniel Matthews 6 Chastened Humanism and/or Necrotic Anthropocene: Transcendence toward Less Ira Allen PART III Landscapes of Hope and Despair 7 Biodiversity: The Neglected Lens for Reimagining Property, Responsibility, and Law for the Anthropocene Paul J. Govind and Michelle Lim 8 The Law of the Sea: Oceans, Ships, and the Anthropocene Renisa Mawani 9 Ocean Acidification and the Anthropocene: An Emergency Response Prue Taylor 10 Outer Space in the Anthropocene Emily Ray PART IV Ecological and Earth Systems Law 11 Taming Gaia 2.0: Earth System Law in the Ruptured Anthropocene Rakhyun E. Kim 12 Collapse or Sustainability?: Ecological Integrity as a Fundamental Norm of Law Klaus Bosselmann 13 Making Ecological Integrity Human-Inclusive in the Anthropocene Geoffrey Garver PART V Dignity and Human Rights 14 The Anthropocene and Human Rights: A New Context and the Need to Revisit Collective Human Concerns Karen Morrow 15 Dignity in the Anthropocene Erin Daly and Dina Lupin PART VI Regulating Nature and Nature Regulates 16 Regulating Nature and the Rule of Law Han Somsen 17 Solar Geoengineering and the Challenge of Governing Multiple Risks in the Anthropocene Kerryn Brent 18 The Transformative Power of Receptivity: Building a Smart Political Energy Grid in Response to Planetary Ecological Crisis Romand Coles and Lia Haro PART VII Imagination and Utopia 19 Imagined Utopias Benjamin J. Richardson 20 Myth for the Anthropocene Peter D. Burdon and James Martel 21 The Nomos of Creativity in the Anthropocene Afshin Akhtar-Khavari and Lachlan Hoy 22 Learning Ecological Law: Innovating Legal Curriculum and Pedagogy Kate Galloway and Nicole Graham PART VIII Post-Script 23 Law, Responsibility, and the Capitalocene: In Search of New Arts of Living Sally Wheeler and Anna Grear in Conversation with Peter Burdon Index

About the Author :
Peter D. Burdon is Associate Professor at Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide, Australia. James Martel is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University, USA.

Review :
"This book opens up along a new horizon of what Anthropocene might mean for human juridical responsibility. Exceptionally interdisciplinary, this is a tapestry of perspectives that eschews romanticisation and remains critical throughout, reaching back to the indigenous roots of first laws and extending to new takes on geoengineering. This is a truly planetary book and perhaps its main lesson is this: that human exceptionalism must and can be translated into human responsibilisation with regards to our planet. If you want to find the tools to do this, read this book." Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, The Westminster Law & Theory Lab, London "Burdon and Martel have brought us an exciting and diverse collection of interdisciplinary essays that address today’s most urgent and critical questions. The authors marshal a strikingly wide range of conceptual resources, inspiring us to reimagine the human and the rules by which we live. It is abounding in creativity when we most need it!" Hasana Sharp, McGill University, Canada