From Environmental to Ecological Law (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)

This book increases the visibility, clarity and understanding of ecological law. Ecological law is emerging as a field of law founded on systems thinking and the need to integrate ecological limits, such as planetary boundaries, into law.

Presenting new thinking in the field, this book focuses on problem areas of contemporary law including environmental law, property law, trusts, legal theory and First Nations law and explains how ecological law provides solutions. Written by ecological law experts, it does this by 1) providing an overview of shortcomings of environmental law and other areas of contemporary law, 2) presenting specific examples of these shortcomings, 3) explaining what ecological law is and how it provides solutions to the shortcomings of contemporary law, and 4) showing how society can overcome some key challenges in the transition to ecological law.

Drawing on a diverse range of case study examples including Indigenous law, ecological restoration and mining, this volume will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers of environmental and ecological law and governance, political science, environmental ethics and ecological and degrowth economics.

Kirsten Anker is Associate Professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. She is a member of McGill’s Economics for the Anthropocene (E4A) project, and Centre for Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives (CICADA).

Peter D. Burdon is Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) at the Adelaide Law School.

Geoffrey Garver teaches environmental courses at McGill University and Concordia University and coordinates law and governance research for the Leadership for the Ecozoic program (www.l4ecozoic.org), formerly the Economics for the Anthropocene Partnership (e4a-net.org). He has a PhD in geography and an LLM from McGill University and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Michelle Maloney (BA/LLB(Hons) Australian National University, and PhD Griffith University) is Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Co-Founder and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA). She advocates for systems change to move industrialized societies from a human-centered to an Earth-centered governance system.

Carla Sbert is an independent researcher in Quebec, Canada. Born in Mexico, where she studied law at ITAM, she also holds an LLM from Harvard Law School and a PhD in law from the University of Ottawa.