Exploring New Frontiers in Earth System Law: From Theory to Practice

Description

Environmental law has failed to drive the structural transformations that are required to confront the planetary crisis. The Anthropocene requires a different legal paradigm, a new generation of laws, and a novel approach to legal regulation that contribute to ensure a realistic prospect for all present and future life to flourish on a disrupted planet. Earth system law has been proposed as an alternative framework to start thinking about the design of such a new legal paradigm for the Anthropocene. Earth system law should ultimately respond
to the unique epistemic, ontological, and normative characteristics, demands, and nature of earth system governance in the Anthropocene.

Since its introduction in 2019, the idea of earth system law has increasingly been studied. Some have embraced it with approval and continue to further develop earth system law scholarship, while others remain more sceptical. A main critique is that while the theoretical foundations of earth system law have been developing well, its practical value and application to real life sustainability challenges it specifically aims to solve, are less clear.
This symposium seeks to engage with and respond to this critique by asking: What are the practical uses of earth system law as a legal imaginary? Is it more than just an imaginary? Which forms and practices of earth system law are already emerging or in place? Which actors are engaging with the elements of earth system law and how? Whither earth system law scholarship and practice?
The aim of this symposium is threefold:
• To take stock of the historical theoretical development of earth system law to date, to critically reflect on major milestones during this period, and to construct a concise stateof-the-art scientific assessment of earth system law.
• To interrogate what this updated state-of-the-art scientific assessment could mean in practice, to identify existing forms and practices of earth system law, and how earth system
law could be further applied to real world sustainability challenges.
• To craft a future earth system law research and policy agenda for the next decade that aligns with and is responsive to the insights developed above.

Periode	12 nov. 2025 → 13 nov. 2025
Evenementstitel	Exploring New Frontiers in Earth System Law: From Theory to Practice
Evenementstype	Conference
Locatie	Wageningen, NetherlandsToon op kaart
Mate van erkenning	International