An Introduction to Wild Law

Wild Law - A Vision for an Earth Centred Legal System

Philosophical Roots

� Thomas Berry (1914-2009)

� Biographical notes and Contribution

� Cormac Cullinan ‘Wild Law: A Manifesto forEarth Justice’.

� Subsequent development

� Development: National and InternationalNetworks.

Environmental Crisis

Slide 3

� Despite 50 years of awareness and 35 years ofenvironmental law all of the important environmentalindicators are worsening.

� Increasing global average temperatures, widespread melting ofsnow and ice, and rising global average sea levels;

� Unsustainable land use and climate change driving landdegradation;

� Aquatic ecosystems are heavily exploited;

� Water availability declining globally; and

� Almost all well-studied species declining in distribution,abundance or both.

The Anthropocene

Slide 4

‘Human beings have become a force of nature. It was not so long ago that hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts were accepted as natural disasters. But now we have

joined God, powerful enough to influence these events.’

David Suzuki, The Legacy: An Elder’s Vision for our Sustainable Future (2010) 17

Searching for Root Causes

“Oil spills, endangered species, ozone depletion and so forth are presented as separate incidents and the

overwhelming nature of these events means that we seldom look deeper. But these issues are analogous to the tip of an iceberg, they are simply the visible portion of a much larger entity, most of which lies beneath the surface,

beyond our daily inspection.”

John Livingston, Arctic Oil: The Destruction of the North? (1981) 4

Anthropocentrism

“The Deepest cause of the present devastation is found is a mode of

consciousness that has established a radical discontinuity between the human

and other modes of being.”

Thomas Berry, The Great Work (1999) 4.

Elements:

� Human beings are the central fact of theuniverse.

� Final aim and end of the universe.

� The earth exists to satisfy human needsand desires.

Historical Examples

‘Plants exist for the sake of animals, the brute beasts for the sake of man - domestic animals for his use and

food, wild ones for food and others accessories of life, such as clothing and various tools. Since nature makes nothing purposeless or in vain, it is undeniably true that she has made all animals for the sake of man.’

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on

the ground.’Genesis 1:27-31

Modern Example

‘If the owl can’t adapt to the superiority of humans, screw it…if a spotted owl can’t adapt, does the Earth really need that particular species so much that hardship to human beings is worth enduring in the process of saving it?’

Rush Limbaugh, quoted in Dale Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment: An Introduction (2008) 181-82.

The Long Arm of Anthropocentrism

Slide 9

� Thomas Berry contends that anthropocentrism is anattitude that is shared (and assumed) by all four of thefundamental establishments that control human affairs:� Law and Government

� Legal system is supporting exploitation rather than protecting thenatural world from destruction by the relentless industrial economy.

� Economics

� Neoliberal growth economics.

� Universities� Lack of critical thinking and analysis.

� Religion� Perpetuate human dominion and alienation from nature.

Environmental Law in a Plutocracy

Slide 10

The Limits of Environmental Law

� Weighted to economic development;

� The main thing environmental law’s regulate areenvironmentalists;

� Deals poorly with scientific evidence and concepts i.e.ecological integrity;

� Rarely uses precautionary principle; and

� Environmental law has developed in piecemeal fashionand gradually moved away from an an underlying objectiveor philosophy.

Ecocentrism as an Alternative Paradigm for

Law

‘Even to think we are separated from nature is somehow a thinking disorder…[y]ou can’t be separated from nature.

Why we think that way is the interesting thing.’

James Hillman, The 11th Hour: Turn Mankind’s Darkest Hour Into Its Finest (Directed by Leonardo DiCaprio, Warner Brothers Pictures, 2007) 00:26:15.

Wild Law: The Many-Headed Hydra

� Implications of an Eco-centric Perspective for Law

� Environmental integrity as a foundation and benchmark forlegal quality;

� Rights of nature;

� Limitations on human property rights;

� Protection for environmental activists who challenge existinglaws and developments;

� Challenging corporate personhood and the obligations ofdirectors and officers;

� Rules and regulation on consumption and waste; and

� Shift from plutocracy to participatory democracy.