Abstract
AbstractWith the increasing environmental degradation in spaces most affected by climate change such as the Arctic, and the extension of anthropogenic environmental problems even into the Earth’s orbit, international law is confronted with some unprecedented challenges. Much of the legal dialogue surrounding this question is taking place in the abstract, such that there are no exact proposals for methodological and practical applications in lawmaking. In this Article, I argue that current governance relevant to the Arctic and outer space precedes an understanding of these spaces. Critical posthumanism, and other approaches, point out the continuation of strict boundaries that have been set up between the human body and the environment. International law’s formalist doctrinal deductions exacerbate these boundaries. I propose an approach to lawmaking under a broad term: the cosmolegal. The cosmolegal proposal challenges distinctions between human-made and non-human “laws”—scientific and social laws—and questions the foundational determination of both. The framework I suggest in this Article, therefore, requires a new approximation to accuracy in lawmaking, which could be achieved by greater interdisciplinarity and acceptance of ontological pluralism. This Article is divided into two broader sections. The first section focuses on two environmental problems: A) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Arctic and B) orbital debris. The second section argues for a different ontology of law and human self-understanding in the context of the unknown. It proposes “cosmolegality” in an attempt to approximate the inclusion and representation of ‘everything considered to be non-human.
Highlights
With the increasing environmental degradation in spaces most affected by climate change such as the Arctic, and the extension of anthropogenic environmental problems even into the Earth’s orbit, international law is confronted with some unprecedented challenges
The main hypothesis of this Article is that the international legal response to climate change on Earth, atmospheric pollution, and pollution caused by human activities in orbital space requires a new ontological approach to the law itself
The fluidity and extraterritoriality of aggregate states beyond matter solidity19 have been a challenge for jus publicum terrae since the question of what law could the law among nations apply to the air or the “free seas.”20 As scholarship on the history of international law has demonstrated, sixteenth and seventeenth century authors were charting out a law that would secure the right of free commerce, as they created foundations for the law among nations
Summary
The Arctic is one of the fastest warming places on the planet. As temperatures rise, the frozen layer of soil, called permafrost, begins to thaw, releasing methane (CH4) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. The case Arctic CH4 release demonstrates how various disciplines span across different domains in order to address climate change on Earth This Article identifies two planetary environmental challenges: (1) the effects of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Arctic; and (2) orbital debris, or human-made objects polluting the Earth’s orbit.. The main hypothesis of this Article is that the international legal response to climate change on Earth, atmospheric pollution, and pollution caused by human activities in orbital space requires a new ontological approach to the law itself. The term cosmolegal merges cosmology, a branch of astronomy that involves the scientific study of the large-scale properties of the universe as a whole, with law, due to the need for a different understanding of the Earth and human-centric, global, politico-juridical space.
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