Reimagining international environmental law for the Anthropocene: An earth system law perspective

Abstract

Concerns have been raised regarding the ability of international environmental law to respond to potentially irreversible earth system transformations in the Anthropocene. We argue that in order for international environmental law to have the capacity to respond to the socio-ecological challenges of the Anthropocene, it should embrace an earth system perspective. Earth system law, which is grounded in an earth system perspective, has been proposed as a new epistemic framework to facilitate the legal transformations necessary to respond to such socio-ecological challenges. With reference to recent developments in the international environmental law domain, we discuss the ways in which international environmental law currently fails to align with such a perspective and the types of considerations that international environmental law should reflect in order to be more responsive to a transforming earth system and, thus, better fit-for-purpose in the Anthropocene.

Keywords

• Anthropocene
• Earth system law
• International environmental law
• Multilateral environmental agreements
• Planetary boundaries