Entanglements: the ambivalent role of law in the Anthropocene

Law plays an ambivalent role in Anthropocene-related debates. On the one hand, affirmative theories turn to law as an important instrument for reconciling human life patterns and activities with the Earth’s planetary boundaries. On the other hand, critical theories point out that law perpetuates anthropocentrism, facilitates environmental exploitation, and enables human interference with ecological processes and is thus an integral part of the societal configuration that brought about the Anthropocene. A critical appraisal of the Anthropocene debate, in my view, requires engaging with the reasons for these ambivalent stances on the role of law in the Anthropocene. In this article, I argue that affirmative and critical approaches to the role of law in the Anthropocene fundamentally differ in their interpretations of three fundamental challenges that the Anthropocene poses to the form of law. The first challenge concerns a shift in the law’s function with respect to natural processes; the second, the constitutive role of law for the current economy of exploitation of the environment; and the third, a change in the meaning of democratic rule-making in the Anthropocene. Taken together, these three challenges expose the deep entanglement of the law with the Anthropocene constellation and suggest that the task of constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene begins with a thorough critique of the role of law in bringing about the Anthropocene. A critical interrogation provides the basis for engaging with historic, current and emerging alternative forms of law to work towards imaginaries of a radically different law for the Anthropocene.