The Legal Perspective of Ecosystems in Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice by Cormac Cullinan

1154 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on environmental law

Wild Law: A manifesto for Earth Justice is a book by Cormac Cullinan that proposes recognizing the natural order of communities and ecosystem from a legal prospective. He attempts to show an integration of different fields of study like world politics, Environmental legal theory, physics and how teachings from the ancient world can create an appealing notion for the need for change in today’s environmental understanding. This book has been influential in informing and inspiring the global movement to recognise rights for “Mother Nature”. This movement Cormac Cullinan preaches is destined to shape the 21st century as significantly as the human rights movements shaped the previous century.
Cullinan argues in his book, Wild Law of the impending fact that our species is rapidly destroying our only habitably place to live planet Earth. He indicates that our current governance systems are extremely dysfunctional and need to be completely reengineered. Furthermore, the many environmental treaties, laws and policies adopted in recent years have, by large, failed to slow down, or let alone halt or reverse, the destruction of the planet. This he maintains, is because the legal systems of the present government systems and the policies and institutions associated with them, are based on a mechanistic and dualistic understanding of the world, and on various myths, all of which we now know to be false. Myths such as the belief that human society is separate from, and ultimately superior to the natural world, are now 'hard-wired' into most legal and political systems. Consequently, the overall effect of these governance systems is to facilitate and legitimise the ongoing degradation of our planet.
Cullinan explains the complicated process of ...

... middle of paper ...

...elentless industrial development and destruction of resources, but through the living forces that brought us into being and are the only forces that can sustain us in the coming centuries'. Wild Law is a significant and inspiring development in to the exploring how we might develop such laws and institutions in the future to not only serve us, but the entire ecosystem.
Wild Law shows us how a quality that can only be experienced by straying off this predictable path of civilization as we currently understand it and as we know, it has to be found, obviously must be found it the wilderness, those special places where wildness rules. However, we would do well to remember that in many cultures the wilderness is also strongly associated with wisdom. It is the place to which people go in times of transition or confusion, and it is the place from which new insights emerge.

Show More
Related

  • Frederick Jackson Turner’s Reliance on the Myth of an Unoccupied American Wilderness

    1542 Words  | 4 Pages

    Cronon, William “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90

    Read More

  • Humility In Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    The wild is a place to push yourself to the limit and take a look at who you truly are inside. “Wilderness areas have value as symbols of unselfishness” (Nash). Roderick Nash’s philosophy states that the wilderness gives people an opportunity to learn humility but they fight this because they do not have a true desire to be humble. Human-kind wants to give out the illusion that they are nature lovers when in reality, they are far from it. “When we go to designated wilderness we are, as the 1964 act says, "visitors" in someone else's home” (Nash). People do not like what they cannot control and nature is uncontrollable. Ecocentrism, the belief that nature is the most important element of life, is not widely accepted. The novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer depicts a young boy who goes on an exploration to teach himself the true concept of humility. Chris McCandless, the protagonist, does not place confidence in the universal ideology that human beings are the most significant species on the planet, anthropocentrism.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Abstract Wild by Jack Turner

    3431 Words  | 7 Pages

    the idea of the wild and its importance and necessity of human interaction with the wild.

    Read More

  • Island Civilization Summary

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    At one point in our lives as human beings we began to draw mental lines between ourselves and nature. This is something that has gradually been increasing throughout their years. Most people do not seem to notice all of these constant changes simply because we are used to the type of world we live in now. I believe that in order for somebody to understand what's happening these negative changes need to affect us as individuals. For example, many people don't realize cutting down trees to build businesses will eventually cause the world to be unsustainable. Nature is something very necessary. "Wilderness" in old English was something that had its own will, just like you mentioned in paragraph three. The Wild is a place where wild undomesticated animals should be allowed to roam

    Read More

  • Early Hominids and The Pleistocene and Holocene Eras

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kohak, Erazim V. "Part II." The Green Halo: a Bird's-eye View of Ecological Ethics. Chicago,

    Read More

  • Transformations In Jack London's Call Of The Wild

    1560 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel Call of The Wild by Jack London is about the dog Buck who is half St. Bernard and half sheepdog. Buck enjoys a relaxed lifestyle at his home in California until he is stolen and shipped to the Klondike region in Canada. Here he is put to work as a sled dog where he must battle the bad conditions, other dogs, and the cruelty of the wild to stay alive. One theme that can be seen over the course of the book is the difference between civilization and the wilderness. For example in civilization there are set rules that people must abide and these set rules makes everyone equal. However, Buck quickly learns that in the law of club and fang govern the wild. These means that the strongest people/dogs controls the weaker ones. In order for Buck to survive he must adapt to the ways of the wild in order to survive.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Garret Hardin's Tragedy Of The Commons

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    As time passes, our population continues to increase and multiply; yet, on the other hand, our planet’s resources continue to decrease and deplete. As our population flourishes, human beings also increase their demands and clamor for the Earth’s natural products, yet are unable to sacrifice their surplus of the said resources. Garret Hardin’s work highlighted the reality that humans fail to remember that the Earth is finite and its resources are limited. Hardin’s article revealed that people are unable to fathom that we indeed have a moral obligation to our community and our natural habitat — that we are not our planet’s conquerors but its protectors. We fail to acknowledge and accept that we only have one Earth and that we must protect and treasure it at all costs. Despite all our attempts at annihilating the planet, the Earth will still be unrelenting — it will still continue to be present and powerful. Human beings must recognize that we need this planet more than it needs us and if we persist on being egocentric and covetous, in the end it is us who will

    Read More

  • Summary Of Island Civilization By Robert Frazier Nash

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    The majority of this piece is dedicated to the author stating his opinion in regards to civilization expanding beyond its sustainable limits. The author makes it clear that he believes that humans have failed the natural environment and are in the process of eliminating all traces of wilderness from the planet. Nash points out facts that strengthen his argument, and quotes famous theologians on their similar views on environmental issues and policies. The combination of these facts and quotes validates the author’s opinion.

    Read More

  • The Power of Place

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because of human and nonhuman connections to specific places including knowledge, experience and community, using a sense of place and permanence as a green transnational multilateral initiative could be a successful step towards green democracy and ecological citizenship. Robyn Eckersley offers the suggestion of a constitutionally entrenched principle that would enhance ecological and social responsibility: the precautionary principle. I suggest connecting localized, place-specific boundaries with the principle. This addition is meant to aid in fostering ecological citizenship, expanding the moral community, and creating a responsible society. This addition would also be meant to unite a transnational issue that all nations could agree upon. This would create a binding multilateral principle that would be thoroughly accepting of specific ecological needs and characteristics of specific places.

    Read More

  • Essay On Muir

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    His often utilization of words such as wild, paradise, and pristine in describing these naturalscapes, provided a misinformed idea of what the American West was truly like. This misinformed idea rapidly changed into what people expected from wilderness. They expect to see scenes reminiscent of the Hudson River school and be cleansed by the healing power of Mother Earth (Muir). Through Muir’s expensive definitions on what constitutes a wilderness he has altered the meaning of it. In the late nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, the wilderness served more as an idea than a definable work, Muir and his writing played a major role in defining the wilderness to the city bound masses.

    Read More

  • The Island Of Dr. Moreau Analysis

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first main instance, says “Montgomery told me that the Law, especially among the feline Beast People, became oddly weakened about nightfall; that then the animal was at its strongest; that a spirit of adventure sprang up in them at the dusk, when they would dare things they never seemed to dream about by day.” Chapter fourteen supports this statement when Dr. Moreau is explaining what his work is about on the island and he says “And they revert. As soon as my hand is taken from them the beast begins to creep back, begins to assert itself again.” My thesis statement is “Laws are an important part of society, but they cannot change the inner desires of a living being.” This is true in so numerous ways. It doesn’t matter how countless times someone tries to mold and change a living being, it is going to revert back to its normal self. An animal has animal instincts, and it’s going to rely on these instincts when it is out in the wild. When Moreau took grown animals, which have spent half of their life learning how to survive as an animal, and just change the way it looks, and tried to change how it thought, then gave it some laws, it’s not going to adapt well. The animal is going to keep going back and back to its

    Read More

  • Summary of the Chapter 'Blessed Unrest'

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hawken writes that the movement, a collective gathering of nonconformists, is focused on three basic ambitions: environmental activism, social justice initiatives, and indigenous culture’s resistance to globalization. The principles of environmental activism being closely intertwined with social justice rallies. Hawken states how the fate of each individual on this planet depends on how we understand and treat what is left of the planet’s lands, oceans, species diversity, and people; and that the reason that there is a split between people and nature is because the social justice and environmental arms of the movement hav...

    Read More

  • Endangered Species

    2010 Words  | 5 Pages

    Having considered both sides of the argument surrounding the Endangered Species Act, it seems logical to conclude that, despite the fact that they Endangered Species Act could stand some improvement in terms of the speed of the bureaucracy that governs it, the Act itself is quite sufficient as is as long as it is administered to the full extent of its power. There is a growing tendency in government, however, to undermine the strength of the Endangered Species Act by making decisions on when and where to apply it a political matter rather than an ecological matter (Munro, 2010). To do this is to insure that ultimately it will not just be the environment and the wile organisms that live in it that will lose, it will be mankind as well.

    Read More

  • 12 World Problems by Gadamer

    1822 Words  | 4 Pages

    1. Pollution - of the air, the water, the soil. For Gadamer all of these problems are the consequence of the compartmentalized thinking of the modern era, along with the assumption that the earth is ours to exploit as we please without regard to for the future, for our children, for the earth itself. We must reassume our historical responsibility for our children’s future by protecting their heritage. The reckless anarchy of the exploitation of the earth must be replaced by responsible dialogue among the exploiters, and among the governments of the earth. At present, we have a gathering of the Big 7 or 8 on how to manage the world to their own advantage. Such a dialogue, however, brings up questions of justice and fairness in the allocation of the resources of the earth. A new protocol must be worked out whereby the universal declaration of human rights is more than a pious wish-list that is lost in the scramble of big corporations to exploit the resources of the earth. Here, Gadamer’s insight into the structure of dialogue can help address these problems.

    Read More

  • Environmental Ethics

    2117 Words  | 5 Pages

    William F. Baxter exemplifies this anthropocentric viewpoint. In his book People or Penguins: The Case of Optimal Pollution, he argues that society should respect and attempt to preserve environmental balance only if the benefits to humans outweigh the costs. Baxter claims that, since there is no normative definition of “pure” air or water, society should aim for a level of pol...

    Read More

More about The Legal Perspective of Ecosystems in Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice by Cormac Cullinan

Open Document