The Law of Complex Earth and Outer Space Systems

This book offers a paradigm-shifting exploration of lawmaking for the complex Earth system-outer space interactions in the Anthropocene era.  

Drawing on complex systems science, posthuman approaches, and plural ontologies, the author proposes a radical reimagining of law and governance for the cosmic age. This study advocates a 'cosmolegal' perspective that 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 the pressing environmental challenges that span our planet and beyond. Although legal scholarship has increasingly attended to the field of Earth System Science, it has treated outer space as distinct from that of the Earth?s own environment. The Earth?s existence and complex systems are, however, intertwined with and emerge from outer space. This book, then, maintains that the concern with how law can best address the fact that the planet's oceans, lands, and atmosphere constitute an integrated system must extend to include the Earth?s orbit and cosmos as an integrated space that is increasingly relied upon for commercial and scientific purposes. At its core, the book argues for a fundamental ?complexification? of law, calling for greater epistemic humility in legal thought and practice. This would allow for a more nuanced and adaptive approach to law and governance in the face of cosmic-scale challenges. Thoughtful and provocative, this work invites readers to reconsider fundamental assumptions about law, nature, and human-beyond human agency in a time of planetary changes. The cosmolegal aims to shift our imagination and understanding so that the human, and its law, are understood as only one of the actors within the cosmos. 

This highly original work will appeal to scholars of legal theory, environmental law, as well as others with interests in posthumanism, ecology and materialism.

"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.