Ecological Jurisprudence

This open access book explores the rise of ecological jurisprudence, a transformative legal theory that challenges traditional legal boundaries. Drawing on over 15 years of research and teaching, the book offers a comprehensive theoretical exploration of this new approach to law, via a comprehensive examination of a wide range of initiatives from around the world, as well as a deep theoretical engagement with the implications of this novel legal theory.  Covering a breadth of topics never before brought together with such clear and wide-ranging scope, this book points to the emergence of an ecological jurisprudence not only as a profound transformation of legal norms, but as a radical reimagination of law itself, and serves as a vital resource for scholars and practitioners interested in the future of environmental law Along with Stone’s Do Trees Have Standing? (1972), Cullinan’s Wild Law (2002), and the Ecuadorian Constitution (2008), we can now name Pelizzon’s Ecological Jurisprudence as a key milestone in the field. (Herman F. Greene, JD, DMin, Thomas Berry Scholar-in-Residence, The Earth Law Center)An immense gift to the field and to generations of lawyers to come, Ecological Jurisprudence contains teachings from which one could learn for a lifetime. (Katarina Hovden, University of Copenhagen)Alessandro Pelizzon's Ecological Jurisprudence is deeply-rooted in how the law can best serve the natural world, inspiring future lawyers with the kind of jurisprudence the natural world so urgently needs to exist. (Maria Mercedes Sánchez, Former Coordinator of the United Nations Harmony with Nature Programme)Pelizzon coins the term ‘ecological jurisprudence’ and mobilises it to create deep normative foundations for future environmental law developments. Any serious environmental scholar will have to engage with him because of the breadth and depth of what he achieves in this book. (Professor Afshin Akhtar-Khavari, QUT)

Dr Alessandro Pelizzon is an Associate Professor in the School of Law and Society at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. He completed his LLB/LLM at the University of Turin in Italy, specializing in comparative law and legal anthropology with a field research project conducted in the Andes. His Doctoral research, conducted at the University of Wollongong, focused on native title and legal pluralism in the Illawarra region. Alessandro has been exploring the emerging discourse on rights of Nature, Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence since its inception, with a particular focus on the intersection between this emerging discourse and different legal ontologies. Alessandro is the co-founder and an Executive Committee Member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature Programme. Alessandro's main areas of research are legal anthropology, legal theory, comparative law, ecological jurisprudence, constitutional law, sovereignty, and Indigenous rights.