Abstract:
Current environmental legislation is inadequate and failing to protect the environment. Climate change, ecological breakdown and loss of species are not just symptoms of human impact upon the environment but are also aggravated by both environmental and property laws that are based and built upon anthropocentric views which place human interests as a priority often to the detriment of the environment as a whole. A new discourse is needed amongst environmental/property law teachers and students to address these failings and as such a revision of environmental/property law, and how it should be reformed needs to be included within the legal curriculum. Education is the key to understanding how and why legal systems work and if there is any need for reforms. Only then can it begin to influence policy-making at the legislature level to influence future governance systems.
This fundamental revision of how both environmental and property law is taught and debated would be a springboard to develop and evolve the foundation of both environmental and property law to a more eco-centric position as environmental law is interwoven with property law. This is innovative because property law by tradition is an orthodox legal subject that is rigid in its historical position but by accommodating a more eco-centric view may be a way forward to promoting environmental laws that can provide more appropriate environmental and species protection. This is an important and essential step with legal education at this time as climate change and environmental destruction threaten us all.
Speaker:
Julie Elizabeth Boyd, PhD Candidate, School of Law, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Julie Elizabeth Boyd is a doctoral candidate at the School of Law (Faculty of Business and Law) at Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Her research interest is in the exploration and implementation of the concept of ‘Wild Law’ within legal systems to address the current climate crisis and loss of species and habitat. ‘Wild Law’ advocates for a shift away from the anthropocentric position within legal governance systems, such as within environmental and property law, towards one which is eco-centric.
Her current research project analyses how environmental legislation has, and continues, to fail to protect the environment because it is based upon anthropocentric reasoning and that there is an urgent need to adopt a more eco-centric perspective. This radical approach is essential to mitigate the continuing ecological destruction.