Towards ecological law? Environmental law on the threshold of a new ecocentric legal paradigm in the anthropocene

Verso un diritto ecologico? Il diritto ambientale alla soglia di un nuovo paradigma giuridico ecocentrico nell’Antropocene

Abstract

The article analyses, with an emphasis on Brazilian law, the impact of the recognition of the new geological epoch of the Anthropocene on the Law and, in particular, on Environmental Law. Among the transformations caused by the Anthropocene in the original configuration of Environmental Law, the debate around the emergence of a new ecocentric legal paradigm anchored in Earth Science and ecological ethics stands out. The disruption to the anthropocentric legal paradigm that molded the foundations of classic Environmental Law half a century ago, that is, at the beginning of the 1970s, would be decisive in recognizing a new evolutionary phase in the discipline: Ecological Law. Recognizing the legal personality of new subjects (future generations, animals, Nature, natural entities, etc.) and the rights of animals and Nature is another striking feature of the new paradigm and legal narrative under construction.

Keywords: Anthropocene; Ecological ethics; Ecocentric legal paradigm; Ecological law; Animal rights; Rights of nature