Overview

This book offers a paradigm-shifting exploration of lawmaking for the complex interactions between Earth systems and outer space. Drawing on complex systems science, posthuman approaches, and plural ontologies, the author proposes a reimagining of law and governance for the cosmic age. Through the “cosmolegal” perspective, this study embraces the inherent uncertainties and complexities of Earth-space interactions. From Arctic methane craters to orbital debris, the book weaves together scientific insights, landscape architecture, legal theory, and doctrine to address pressing environmental challenges that span Earth and beyond. While legal scholarship has increasingly engaged with Earth System Science, it typically treats outer space as distinct from Earth’s environment. However, Earth’s existence and complex systems are fundamentally intertwined with and emerge from outer space. This book argues that a legal framework for Earth’s systems needs to include outer space. At its core, the book advocates for a “complexification” of law, calling for greater epistemic humility in legal thought and practice. Thoughtful and provocative, this work invites readers to reconsider fundamental assumptions about law, nature, and agency beyond the human in an era of planetary change. The cosmolegal approach aims to shift legal imagination and understanding, positioning human law as just one of many actors within the cosmos. This original work will appeal to scholars of legal theory and environmental law, as well as those interested in posthumanism, ecology, and materialism.

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9781032266879

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Reviews

“In this encyclopaedic work, Dr Elena Cirkovic makes the important argument that complex systems have a decisively significant dimension of indeterminacy - a fundamental unknowability. This indeterminacy problematises overarching approaches that claim to solve modern law’s anthropocentrism (including rights of nature, ‘stewardship’ or Earth System governance approaches), unless and until such approaches reckon adequately with the unknown and unpredictable. For Dr Cirkovic, this indeterminacy leads to the need to focus on precaution and long-term justice. It demands, in short, epistemic humility in the face of complexity as a vital part of future-facing justice-making.” Anna Grear, Cardiff University, UK “In this book, Dr. Elena Cirkovic offers a radical reimagining of the law as a complex system. Cirkovic’s work is a masterful example of interdisciplinarity and the strength of the approach in understanding complex phenomena like law rather than the simplification offered by more mainstream western legal theory. Despite the mobilisation of complexity, Cirkovic manages to make her novel approach accessible and easy to understand to people interested in law and socio-ecological issues from all disciplines and from outside the halls of academia, demonstrating that intricate theoretical frameworks can be made accessible without sacrificing depth.” Pierre Cloutier de Repentigny, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Canada

""In this encyclopaedic work, Dr Elena Cirkovic makes the important argument that complex systems have a decisively significant dimension of indeterminacy — a fundamental unknowability. This indeterminacy problematises overarching approaches that claim to solve modern law’s anthropocentrism (including rights of nature, “stewardship” or Earth System governance approaches), unless and until such approaches reckon adequately with the unknown and unpredictable. For Dr Cirkovic, this indeterminacy leads to the need to focus on precaution and long-term justice. It demands, in short, epistemic humility in the face of complexity as a vital part of future-facing justice-making."" Anna Grear, Cardiff University, UK. ""In this book, Dr. Elena Cirkovic offers a radical reimagining of the law as a complex system. Cirkovic’s work is a masterful example of interdisciplinarity and the strength of the approach in understanding complex phenomena like law rather than the simplification offered by more mainstream western legal theory. Despite the mobilisation of complexity, Cirkovic manages to make her novel approach accessible and easy to understand to people interested in law and socio-ecological issues from all disciplines and from outside the halls of academia, demonstrating that intricate theoretical frameworks can be made accessible without sacrificing depth."" Pierre Cloutier de Repentigny, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Canada.

Author Information

Elena Cirkovic is a researcher in the Department of Law at Aarhus University, Denmark.

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