Wild Law Research Articles

Preventing Another Pandemic: How Changing the Legal Paradigm Governing Intensive Animal Agriculture Will Reduce the Risk of Future Zoonoses


 
 
 The public health consequences tied to our relationships with animals are significant. The COVID-19 pandemic and previous instances of zo- onotic disease emergence and re-emergence have demonstrated that human relationships with animals can have a profound impact on our health. In the US, the most prevalent human-animal relationship is the one we have with the animals that we eat. This relationship is defined and facilitated by intensive animal agriculture, a practice at high risk of causing zoonotic disease emergence. This Article explores the current regulatory regime governing intensive animal agriculture and argues that it is deficient in the context of zoonotic disease. It argues that this deficiency is a result of the legal anthropocentrism that manifests in practices inherent to intensive animal agriculture and demonstrates that such an approach is unable to adequately manage the risk of future zoonoses. This Article argues for a regulatory approach that acknowl- edges the interdependence of humans, animals, and the environment. It proposes Wild Law as the most appropriate framework to address the risk of zoonotic disease and concludes that intensive animal agriculture would not be permitted under a Wild Law approach due to its inherent inability to operate within the context of an interdependent human-an- imal-environment relationship.
 
 

Is the Grass Greener in a Post-Pandemic World? (Re)Connecting Humanity with Nature for a Just Recovery

This article assesses the potential for reconnecting human and non- human nature in global post-COVID-19 recovery plans. The article utilises a critical perspective on the neoliberalisation of nature as a framing, as well as the case of sustainability and deforestation in forest risk commodity supply chains, to assess whether sustainable development initiatives and neoliberal environmental governance adequately protect the interests of vulnerable human and non- human nature. It finds that existing approaches to sustainable development in international governance prioritise liberalised global markets and the neoliberalisation of nature through commodification, privatisation and marketisation, thus furthering an unjust human-nature dichotomy by placing humans separate from nature and removing the intrinsic value of non-human materiality. It identifies a synergy between the global campaign to ‘build back better’ after COVID-19, environmental regulation and principles of Wild Law. The article concludes by recommending that a just post- pandemic economic recovery must realign the human experience as a part of the wider whole of the non-human natural world.

Decimation of a population of the endangered species Scutellastra mexicana (Broderip and Sowerby, 1829) (Mollusca, Gastropoda) in the Marías Island (Eastern Ocean Pacific) Biosphere Reserve

Abstract Scutellastra mexicana is the largest known patellid limpet species and probably is one of the most endangered marine invertebrates. The species was once distributed along the American Pacific coast from Mexico to Peru, but their large size (up to 35 cm long) and easy accessibility (shallow sublittoral), made it very vulnerable to human collection and now is extinct on most of the mainland Mexican coast. In August 2017, a large population of this species was found on María Cleofas island, off the coast of west‐central Mexico (Marías Archipelago, Pacific Ocean). This constitutes the only report of a population of this species since 1988. A total of 808 adult individuals of up to 26 cm in length and 20 cm in width were estimated, together with the presence of juveniles, suggesting that it is a self‐sustaining population. The population was monitored in August 2017 and August 2018. Although the species is under the category ‘Special Protection’ in the General Mexican Wild Law, and that María Cleofas island is a Biosphere Reserve, fishermen that operate with impunity in the area decimated the limpet population within a year of its discovery. Abundance in the shallowest area decreased significantly from 120 individuals per transect (65 m long and 2.75 m wide) in August 2017 to 48 individuals in August 2018, and the estimated adult population decreased from 808 to 304 limpets. Neither passive national conservation policies nor local practices have reduced current threats to biodiversity and resource depletion in Marías Archipelago. Protected areas like this are ‘paper parks’—parks in name only—because there is no active conservation strategy or protection of marine species.

Brexit’s Shades of Green—(Missing) the Opportunity to Transform Farming in England?

Abstract The UK Government’s ‘green Brexit’ includes fundamental reform of agriculture. We use resilience thinking to examine the complex relationship between farming policy and environmental sustainability. Farming is a social ecological system that will be disturbed by leaving the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. Reforms could reinforce persistence of the status quo or shape transformation to ‘better’ sustainability. We argue Brexit is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the hegemony of sustainable intensification to be challenged by enhanced agroecological farming practices. The interdependency of social and ecological factors is a critical threshold for transformative change, which we explore through three key sites of struggle: farmers’ cultural identity, connection to land, and security. We suggest transformative law and governance measures built upon Wild Law jurisprudence and resilience principles of diversity, scale, flexibility, relationality, education and participatory decision-making. We conclude that the Government’s approach falls short of the transformation needed for a resilient, sustainable farming system.

The Myth of the Teaching-Research Nexus

The wild law judgment project is a recent exciting collaborative project involving the rewriting and writing of both existing and hypothetical judgments from a wild law or Earth-centred perspective. In this article, the author reflects upon the performative implications of judicial impersonation and writing and rewriting judgments wildly. The performative nature of the project makes it a valuable teaching resource, in that it thereby offers a different and arguably more powerful challenge to the anthropocentric bias in law than that contained in more conventional forms of academic critique. Drawing upon insights contributed by academics who have used rewritten feminist judgments in their teaching, the author explores the pedagogical value and possibilities in the collection of wild law judgments. In light of the dire existential crisis which currently confronts Earth and its diverse lifeforms, there is a solid argument for ensuring that such an ‘outsider pedagogy’ is effectively incorporated into the mainstream curriculum in law schools.

Performance and Pedagogy in the Wild Law Judgment Project

Extract: Here is a question I enjoy posing to teachers and students participating in a course on animals and the law: what exactly do you do during the 12 (or so) weeks of your seminar? If it resembles a traditional law course, the answer will undoubtedly refer to assigned readings that explore the relationship between animals and the law, some lectures – perhaps followed by questions from the professor to the students – and a healthy dollop of classroom discussion about policy issues. More traditional teachers might also include some Socratic questioning, while more adventurous lecturers will throw in video footage of animal treatment and a few guest speakers.

Making Wild Law Work—The Role of ‘Connection with Nature’ and Education in Developing an Ecocentric Property Law

Framed against the background of anthropocentric and ecocentric values, the specific themes of this article are located in the developing discourse of Earth Jurisprudence and Wild Law. Critically, the article argues that connection with nature—and specifically, with land—underpins any transformation of property law from an anthropocentric, individualist concept to a more ecocentric and relational one. It draws upon evidence from psychology, sociology and environmental education to demonstrate that connection with nature is central to fostering a Wild Law of property. The article then addresses how such connections can be developed by education, focusing upon the experiences and opportunities offered by initiatives such as Forest School and suggesting these represent emerging forms of Wild Education.

Economy, Society and Earth in Polanyian and Wild Law Perspectives on Environmental Regulation: To Perform a Double or Triple Movement?

Economy, Society and Earth in Polanyian and Wild Law Perspectives on Environmental Regulation: To Perform a Double or Triple Movement?

Earth Jurisprudence, Wild Law, Emergent Law: The Emerging Field of Ecology and Law—Part 2

The article does two things. First, it explores the emerging field of ecology and law through the examination of Earth Jurisprudence developed in the work of Berry, Cullinan, and Burdon. Second, it puts this Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law in connection with the wide ranging philosophical work of Deleuze & Guattari. Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law are introduced through the exploration of four themes that characterise the field of study: a critique of the dominant western worldview and image of thought; a new philosophy of nature widely informed by contemporary science and cosmology; a new relation to the Earth and nature in affectual intensities, image of thinking, and investment of the social field; and, the realisation of the necessity and centrality of a fundamental reconceptualization of legality and governance. The Earth Jurisprudence of Berry, Cullinan, and Burdon (particularly Cullinan’s Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice) is then explored substantively in Cullinan’s reconceptualization of legality, the Grand Jurisprudence that informs Earth Jurisprudence, the Earth Jurisprudence of the promotion of mutual ecocentric human–Earth enhancement, the development of Earth rights, the reconceptualization of property and land, and the Wild Law that Earth Jurisprudence produces as the outcome of its creativity. Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law are a far-reaching development within legal studies, with potentially profound implications for our contemporary conceptualisation of legality and governance and the creation of a concept of law for a new Earth. When put into connection with the wide ranging philosophical joint work of Deleuze & Guattari there emerge striking commonalities, convergences, and a common jurisprudential project of the creation of a legality for a new Earth. The article concludes with the argument that the work of Deleuze & Guattari could provide a key resource for the development of Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law, particularly the Deleuze & Guattari jurisprudential concept of emergent law.

The Australian Wild Law Judgment Project

The Australian Wild Law Judgment Project

Earth Jurisprudence, Wild Law, Emergent Law: The Emerging Field of Ecology and Law—Part 1

The article does two things. First, it explores the emerging field of ecology and law through the examination of Earth Jurisprudence developed in the work of Berry, Cullinan, and Burdon. Second, it puts this Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law in connection with the wide ranging philosophical work of Deleuze and Guattari. Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law are introduced through the exploration of four themes that characterise the field of study: a critique of the dominant western worldview and image of thought; a new philosophy of nature widely informed by contemporary science and cosmology; a new relation to the Earth and nature in affectual intensities, image of thinking, and investment of the social field; and, the realisation of the necessity and centrality of a fundamental reconceptualization of legality and governance. The Earth Jurisprudence of Berry, Cullinan, and Burdon (particularly Cullinan’s Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice) is then explored substantively in Cullinan’s reconceptualization of legality, the Grand Jurisprudence that informs Earth Jurisprudence, the Earth Jurisprudence of the promotion of mutual ecocentric human-Earth enhancement, the development of Earth rights, the reconceptualization of property and land, and the Wild Law that Earth Jurisprudence produces as the outcome of its creativity. Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law are a far-reaching development within legal studies, with potentially profound implications for our contemporary conceptualisation of legality and governance and the creation of a concept of law for a new Earth. When put into connection with the wide ranging philosophical joint work of Deleuze and Guattari there emerge striking commonalities, convergences, and a common jurisprudential project of the creation of a legality for a new Earth. The article concludes with the argument that the work of Deleuze and Guattari could provide a key resource for the development of Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law, particularly the Deleuze and Guattari jurisprudential concept of emergent law.

Identifying Points of Contact and Engagement Between Legal and Environmental Education

This article explores the shaping and possibly reforming potential of ideas about sustainability in legal education by drawing up a scale of environmental education theories, arranged according to their propensity to transform radically university education. The article offers a critical analysis of current individualist strategies aimed at developing students' environmental skills, in particular that these hamper opportunities for universities to develop a broader and more creative agenda of social change. Applying ideas about how environmental education communities of practice develop, this article identifies some pockets of activity seeking to integrate ideas of sustainability into the law curriculum, including via environmental law and teaching Wild Law or Earth Jurisprudence. These issues form part of an on‐going debate about how well law students are being prepared for work in highly challenging social, environmental, and financial circumstances, against the backdrop of a broader question about ‘what are universities for?’

Wild rivers, wild accusations – wild law in the Cape York wilderness

The contentious Wild Rivers Act 2005 (Qld) was enacted to protect the natural values of Queensland’s few remaining wild rivers. The law is remarkably enlightened in that it is consistent with current emerging philosophies of ecosystems as a series of complex and synergistic bioregions, and aims to manage human-based activities within catchments rather than managing the catchments or natural processes instead. A precautionary approach minimises harm from activities that are likely to have adverse effects on poorly understood ecosystems. The Act has at present very limited application, only nine far northern Queensland river systems in all. It has divided indigenous communities, some of whom accuse it of stifling much needed economic development while other indigenous people embrace Wild Rivers as enabling them to continue with their tradition way of life. This paper suggests Wild Rivers is wild law and investigates conflicting knowledge systems impacting upon the enactment of sound resource management legislation.

Wild Law

Wild law or Earth Jurisprudence is an emerging theory of law and governance that seeks to evolve law in a fashion that recognises our relationship to the broader Earth community. In this article, the author introduces and articulates some fundamental concepts being developed by theorists in this area. The author also discusses the recent constitutional amendment in Ecuador that granted nature the right to exist, persist and flourish.

Wild law and the challenge of climate change

Wild law and the challenge of climate change

Navigation, Surveillance, and Communications Services within the Province of Ontario

Navigation, surveillance, and communications play an important role in most transportation activities in the Province of Ontario. This paper summarizes the present and future roles of these functions in various essential aviation activities that are performed by the provincial government. These activities include mapping, forest fire detection, wild life surveys, law enforcement, and health services. Particular emphasis is given to the expanding roles of Loran-C for both navigation and dependent surveillance, and satellite communications.