The what, who and how of socio-ecological justice: Tailoring a new justice model for earth system law

Abstract

Since modernity, the mechanistic paradigm has determined how Western and Westernised societies live, produce knowledge, and regulate their interactions and institutions, profoundly influencing law and undermining ecological integrity. This paradigm's key features induce the adoption of a reductionist notion of justice by international law, here called mechanistic justice. Following ecological approaches to law, earth system law offers innovative strategies to overcome mechanistic law. To be consistent with its objectives, this legal scholarship must adopt an alternative notion of justice. In this paper, we explore the synergies between earth system law and socio-ecological justice, analysing if the latter fits the purposes of earth system law. To this end, we present the three initial axes of socio-ecological justice, assessing its potential as a tool to support the shift to earth system law. Results show that socio-ecological justice is aligned with earth system law and could be adopted as a guiding legal principle.

Keywords

• Earth system law
• Socio-ecological justice
• Mechanistic paradigm
• ‘Lock-in’ and ‘lock-out’