Echoes of the Anthropocene: Reimagining Legal Consciousness in the Face of Ecological Crisis
Keywords:
Anthropocene, Legal consciousness, Nature, law, Environmental awareness
Abstract
The concept of the “Anthropocene,” referring to the interconnection between human activity and what was once considered the natural environment, has emerged as a direct response to the radical changes in climate and ecosystems that have transformed the planet's ecology and potentially contributed to the pandemic crisis. Human agency, long regulated through legal instruments, now takes centre stage in the management and stewardship of the planet. Law, as both a reservoir of emotionally significant social symbols and a powerful regulatory tool, plays a crucial role in this context. Therefore, understanding the evolution of environmental legal frameworks is essential. This understanding encompasses the relationship between law, society, the environment, and the role of the citizen, encapsulated in the concept of “legal consciousness”. Moreover, law operates through conceptual categories and frameworks that construct, communicate, and interpret social and cultural relationships. Given that the Anthropocene is not only an ecological condition but also a state of consciousness, environmental awareness must align with legal consciousness. This moment offers an opportunity to reshape legal culture. Several questions arise: How have legal frameworks been reflected in the words, actions, and interpretations of ordinary citizens? Is it necessary to rewrite legal terminology or redefine legal values and frameworks to depict the interconnection between nature and human activity? What role, if any, does the educational system and media play in shaping this consciousness? This paper employs a theoretical and interpretative methodology, drawing on legal theory, environmental history, and analysis of legal consciousness, to examine the role of law in shaping human responses to the environmental crises of the Anthropocene. Furthermore, what are the most effective ways to communicate contemporary legal principles, such as the rights of nature? Should these rules be developed through open and participatory processes? Finally, what lessons can be drawn from environmental history to inform future legal frameworks and values? These questions guide the exploration of how legal systems must evolve in response to the challenges of the Anthropocene.
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References
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38. Legrand, P. (1997). Fragments on law as culture. W.E.J. Tjeenk Willink. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351217989
39. Levi-Strauss, C. (1986). Myth & meaning (1st ed., p. 39). Institute of Book-Kardamitsas.
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2. Acheson, J. (1981). Anthropology of fishing. Annual Review of Anthropology, 10(1), 275-316. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.10.100181.001423
3. Adede, A. (1995). The treaty system from Stockholm (1972) to Rio de Janeiro (1992). Pace Environmental Law Review, 13, 33-34. https://doi.org/10.5893/1553-4067.13.1.33
4. Asad, T. (1992). The concept of cultural translation in British social anthropology. In J. Clifford & G. Marcus (Eds.), Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography (pp. 155-169). University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520917084-016
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8. Blankenbourg, E. (1997). Civil litigation rates as indicators for legal cultures. In D. Nelken (Ed.), Comparing legal cultures (pp. 64-65). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25860-4_4
9. Blackman, L. (2012). Immaterial bodies: Affect, embodiment, mediation. Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250190
10. Bosselman, K. & Kim, R. (2015). Operationalizing sustainable development: Ecological integrity as a grundnorm of international law. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law, 24, 194-209. https://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12109
11. Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things (p. 117). Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822392940
12. Braidotti, R. (2020). Posthuman. Polity Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00139-y
13. Castree, N. (2014). The Anthropocene and the environmental humanities: Extending the conversation. Environmental Humanities, 5(1), 233-260. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3615496
14. Chakrabarty, D. (2009). The climate of history: Four theses. Critical Inquiry, 35(2), 197-222. https://doi.org/10.1086/695304
15. Cotterrell, R. (1997). The concept of legal culture. In D. Nelken (Ed.), Comparing legal cultures (pp. 13-32). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351217989-6
16. Crutzen, P. J. (2002). Geology of mankind. Nature, 415, 23. https://doi.org/10.1038/415023
17. Cotterrell, R. (2009). The struggle for law: Some dilemmas of cultural legality. International Journal of Law in Context, 5(4), 373-376. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744552309990166
18. Cowan, J., Dembour, M.-B., & Wilson, R. A. (Eds.) (2001). Culture and rights: Anthropological perspectives (p. 3). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499493
19. Coole, D. & Frost, S. (Eds.) (2010). New materialisms: Ontology, agency, and politics. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822392957
20. Duncan, K. (2019). Politics and the Anthropocene (p. 2). Polity Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00139-y
21. Dobson, A. (2003). Citizenship and the environment (pp. 174-207). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0199247636.003.0007
22. Ewick, P. & Silbey, S. (1998). The commonplace of law: Stories from everyday life (p. 35). University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226206885.001.0001
23. Eide, A. (1995). Cultural rights as individual rights. In A. Eide, C. Krause, & A. Rosas (Eds.), Economic, social and cultural rights: A textbook (p. 230). Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0161-2_14
24. Edgeworth, M., Richter, B., Waters, C., Haff, P., Neal, C., & McMahon, S.J (2015). Diachronous beginnings of the Anthropocene: The lower bounding surface of anthropogenic deposits. The Anthropocene Review, 2(1), 33-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019615569522
25. Friedman, L. (1997). The concept of legal culture: A reply. In D. Nelken (Ed.), Comparing legal cultures (pp. 33-40). Palgrave Macmillan.
26. Friedman, L. (2011). The human rights culture. Quid Pro.
27. Friedman, L. (1969). Legal culture and social development. Law and Society Review, 4(1), 29-44.
28. Friedman, J. (1994). Cultural identity and global process. Sage Publications.
29. Finlayson, H. (2016). Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill. New Zealand Parliament. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2016/0129/latest/DLM6830851.html?src=qs
30. Gerbany, A. & Van Kreij, L. (2018). The impact of the Convention of Aarhus on the emerging European culture. Europa Law Publishing.
31. Grime, J. P. & Pierce, S. (2012). The evolutionary strategies that shape ecosystems. Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118223246
32. Gonzalez, C. (2015). Bridging the North-South divide: International environmental law in the Anthropocene. Pace Environmental Law Review, 32, 32-48. https://doi.org/10.5893/1553-4067.32.1.4
33. Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822373785
34. Hansman, J. (1976). Gilgamesh, Humbaba and the land of the Erin trees. Iraq, 38, 23-25.
35. Hughes, J. D. (1980). Early Greek and Roman environmentalists. In L. J. Bilsky (Ed.), Historical ecology: Essays on environment and social change (pp. 47-50).
36. Inglehart, R. (1977). The silent revolution: Changing values and political styles among western publics. Princeton University Press.
37. Inglehart, R. (2008). Changing values among western publics from 1970 to 2006. West European Politics, 31(1-2), 130-146. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380701811199
38. Legrand, P. (1997). Fragments on law as culture. W.E.J. Tjeenk Willink. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351217989
39. Levi-Strauss, C. (1986). Myth & meaning (1st ed., p. 39). Institute of Book-Kardamitsas.
40. Latour, B. (2000). We have never been modern (Synalma edition).
41. Meiggs, R. (1982). Trees and timber in the ancient Mediterranean world (pp. 49-53). Clarendon Press.
42. Mitchell, T. (2011). Carbon democracy: Political power in the age of oil. Verso Books.
43. Michael, A. J. (1993). Planetary overload: Global environmental change and the health of the human species (p. 10). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781831830495
44. Merry, S. (2005). Human rights and gender violence: Translating international law into local justice. University of Chicago Press.
45. Nash, R. F. (1989). The rights of nature: A history of environmental ethics. University of Wisconsin Press.
46. Nelken, D. (1997). Comparing legal cultures: An introduction. In D. Nelken (Ed.), Comparing legal cultures (pp. 1-2). Dartmouth.
47. Nelken, D. (2004). Using the concept of legal culture. Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy, 29-44.
48. New Zealand National Party (2019). Whanganui River settlement passes third reading. National Party. https://national.org.nz/whanganui_river_settlement_passes_third_reading
49. Papachristou, T. (2006). Subjects of law & objects in modern law. In Honorable volume in honor of Pr. Manoledakis (Vol. 1). Sakkoulas.
50. Patterson, R. (2001). Claiming possession of the material cultural property of indigenous people. Media and Arts Law Review, 6, 195-207.
51. Persson, L. (2015). Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. Science, 1259855. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259855
52. Rick, T. C., et al. (2013). Archeology, deep history, and the human transformation of island ecosystems. Anthropocene, 4, 33-45.
53. Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1972). United Nations. https://www.cbd.int/doc/ref/rio-declaration.shtml
54. Ridge, P. (1993). Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au/I am the river and the river is me: A collaborative anthropology which explores the relationship between a hapu and the Whanganui River (Master’s thesis). Massey University.
55. Silbey, S. (2001). Legal culture and legal consciousness. In J. Wright (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 15-19). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/01519-9
56. Sally, M. (1990). Getting justice and getting even: Legal consciousness among working-class Americans. University of Chicago Press.
57. Sagui, A. C. & Stuart, F. (2008). Culture and law: Beyond a paradigm of cause and effect. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 619, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716208317574
58. Steffen, W., Richardson, K., Rochstrom, J., Cornell, S., Fetzer, I., Bennet, E., Biggs, R., Carpenter, S., Vries, W., Wit, S., Folke, S., Gerten, D., Heinke, J., Mace, G., & Swimme, B. & Berry, T. (1994). The universe story. Arkana.
59. Schlosberg, D. & Coles, R. (2005). The new environmentalism of everyday life: Sustainable materialism. Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
60. Schlosberg, D. & Craven, L. (2019). Sustainable materialism: Environmental movements and the politics of everyday life (pp. 161-175). Oxford University Press.
61. Storey, D. J. (1979). The economics of environmental law enforcement: Has the prosecution of polluters led to cleaner rivers in England and Wales? Environment and Planning, 11, 898. https://doi.org/10.1068/a110898
62. Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushrooms at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400873032
63. UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (2001). Prevention of discrimination and protection of indigenous people and minorities: Indigenous peoples and their relationship to land (Final working paper by Mrs. Erica-Irene A. Daes, Special Rapporteur). https://refworld.org/docid/3d5a2cd00.html
64. World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Our common future. Oxford University Press.
65. Zalasiewicz Colin, N., Williams, M., Barnosky, A., Gearreta, A., Crutzen, P., Ellis, E., Ellis, M., Fairchild, I., Grinevald, G., Haff., P., Hajdas, I., Leinfelder, I., McNeil, J., Odada, E., Poirier. C., Richter, D., Steffen, W., Summerhayes, C., Syvitski et al. (2014). When did the Anthropocene begin? A mid-twentieth century boundary level is stratigraphically optimal, Quaternary International, 383, 196-203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.11.045
Published
2024-12-31
How to Cite
Kapartziani, C. (2024). Echoes of the Anthropocene: Reimagining Legal Consciousness in the Face of Ecological Crisis. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 20(35), 1. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2024.v20n35p1
Section
ESJ Humanities
Copyright (c) 2024 Chrysoula Kapartziani
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
