Skip to content

(Transnational) law for the Anthropocene: revisiting Jessup’s move from ‘what?’ to ‘how?’

Mai, Laura. 2020. (Transnational) law for the Anthropocene: revisiting Jessup’s move from ‘what?’ to ‘how?’. Transnational Legal Theory. 11(1-2), 105-120.

Abstract

In the Anthropocene, legal thinking is challenged to re-envision the ‘human’ position vis-à-vis the ‘natural’ ‘environment’. To map this challenge, this paper draws on three theoretical perspectives: social-ecological resilience thinking, social systems theory and post-humanism. The paper then explores how Jessup’s perspective on transnational law could be applied to further develop legal thinking in the Anthropocene. It proposes that legal scholarship and practice would benefit from revisiting Jessup’s move from ‘what?’ to ‘how?’: Rather than thinking about what (transnational) law might, or might not, be, legal researchers and practitioners are now tasked to understand how law can be mobilised as a tool to navigate our relationship with the planet. The paper concludes that Jessup’s practical, progressive and pragmatic approach provides a useful starting point for developing legal forms, strategies and technologies to navigate Anthropocene realities.

 

Full article available here

You might like these publication categories

Recent publications

Sustaining Development in Small Islands: Climate Change, Geopolitical Security, and the Permissive Liberal Order

The viability of small island developing states (SIDS) is threatened by three distinct processes – a backlash against globalisation; rising…

Institutionalising Multispecies Justice

Multispecies Justice (MSJ) is a theory and practice seeking to correct the defects making dominant theories of justice incapable of…

Collaborative Ethnography of Global Environmental Governance: Concepts, Methods and Practices

Environmental mega conferences have become the format of choice in environmental governance. Conferences of the Parties (COPs) under the climate…