Earth Jurisprudence: The Moral Value of Nature

us like an enormous oil spill, the call of Earth Jurisprudence becomes louder, suggesting with more emphasis that a shift is necessary in the way that we think about law, governance, and nature. 3 A predicate to rethinking the law is to re-value nature by reconsidering its moral status. 4 The philosophical heritage of the West places nature outside of the moral community. 5 With human beings panoptically centered in the law, nature is viewed as a collection of objects that are to be used as property owners see fit.6As a consequence, Earth has suffered degradation. 7Also as a consewww.earthjuris.org(last visited Oct. 16, 2007).The term "Earth Jurisprudence" arose out of a meeting sponsored by the Gaia Foundation with theologian Thomas Berry in April of 2001 at the Airlie Center in Virginia.See