Legal Theory and Climate Consciousness

In this chapter we consider aspects of legal theory and legal change. The term ‘legal theory’ is quite broad, and includes what is sometimes called ‘jurisprudence’, ‘legal philosophy’ and forms of critical legal theory. Legal theory poses questions about law:

What is law?
Where does law come from?
How does law relate to society?
How does law relate to the natural world?

The chapter is organised by a series of questions and responses, but these are not exhaustive or definitive. Instead, they are intended to provoke further questions and thinking. More issues for consideration are identified at the end of each main section. In this way, legal theory can seem endless and unsettling. But by engaging with legal theory, you can begin to reflect on law at a deeper level. This reflection is critical to the relationship between law and climate consciousness.

The introduction to the chapter considers legal theory as a practice of thinking, critiquing and (re)imagining. The second section looks at how law has been defined by legal theory, accounts of law’s authority, and whether we always have a duty to obey the law. The third section considers the wider social and cultural factors that surround and inform how law is understood: imaginaries, storytelling, representations and abstractions. This leads into our conclusion, which asks how law might be reimagined in a way that is more conscious of Earth and its changing climate.

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