Interconnected Law is a relational approach to law based on social and socio-ecological interconnection, rooted in the values of care, social justice and democracy.
This homepage gives a brief summary of the ideas, with all of the writings to be found on the Articles page, including the Overview piece. As well as this general legal theory work, I have also written extensively about Rights of Nature.
Interconnected Law rejects the current individualistic paradigm dominant in law, replacing it with an approach to law based on the fact of human interconnection. We live in a dense web of relationships — close social relationships, neighbours and acquaintances, communities and broader society, economic and employment relationships, political relations, and ecological relations with the rest of Nature and the world around us. Law should focus on this web of relationships instead of just on individuals.
Beyond just recognising these relationships, and being based on interconnection instead of individualism, law should work to improve them. The purpose of law could be to foster these relationships which create and sustain us, and empower everyone in the society. We should transition to legal systems which are based on human interconnection, look at relationships instead of individuals, and help us live harmoniously with the rest of nature, including rights of Nature and values like sustainability core to law.
This is looking towards a radical change in our social, economic, political and legal systems. Law alone cannot solve the crises we face, and we also need radical changes to our economic system, our political system, and our society. Our entire value system and worldview needs to change, but law must be part of this change, and is a part which so far has not received all that much attention. That’s what this website is about.
This project emerged out of my master’s coursework about human rights and rights of nature. Initially I wrote alongside other jobs as I developed the idea, with early writings and presentations emerging around 2019 and 2020. In 2022 I began undertaking PhD research, but unfortunately at the end of 2023 I became severely ill with post-acute sequelae of Covid-19 (PASC/’long covid’) and had to stop work. Since then, I have worked to tie off my two main research projects and archive them on this website. More about this in this (forthcoming) blog post on medical retirement. Sadly, this has also meant I have been very limited in any dissemination of the ideas – so if you think they are useful, please feel free to share, present, or work with them yourself. If you would like to discuss these ideas further feel free to get in touch, and I will respond if I am able.