An approach to law based on interconnection
We live in an interconnected world. This is obvious globally – but it’s also true individually.
Every person lives in a network of relationships. We have our intimate relationships – family, partners, close friends – as well as our broader social relationships, neighbourhoods, communities, society and internationally.
In July 2021, I was invited to give a workshop on Interconnected Law by the Future Law Institute. I was grateful for the opportunity to present my ideas, and it served as a useful catalyst for me to write a presentation covering it all. If you would like to listen only to the “summary” section, […]
This article on openDemocracy sets out the overall idea of Interconnected Law. It is a longer one, but probably the best thing here to read to get the overall picture with some detail. Below are excerpts of the introduction and conclusion. The full article can be read here. Introduction Our world abounds with injustices, and […]
Plundering nature is the norm within our legal and economic systems. Our survival depends on charting a new course. This article was initially published by openDemocracy (here) and then also by the Ecologist (here). As has now been widely reported, the Amazon rainforest is on fire due to a mixture of fires started for land clearance and […]
This is a blog post written for the Wildlife and Countryside Link’s blog which aims to encourage environmentalists to think big about legal change and legal strategy. https://www.wcl.org.uk/what-legal-change-do-we-need-for-nature-to-be-truly-protected.asp
This article, written for the Ecologist, sets out an overview of the idea and argument of Interconnected Law, with particular focus on the need for radical transformation to stop our destruction of Nature. The article can be read here. Introduction Nature is being destroyed, and in turn, human survival is threatened. The optimism of the […]
The Interconnected Law Project The Interconnected Law project is looking to be part of a paradigm shift in how we understand and use law. Paradigms are ways of understanding things, a framework for interpreting and understanding the world. They are constellations of concepts, values, perceptions and practises that form part of a vision of reality, […]
The ‘interconnected’ approach to law is a relational approach. This means that it understands humans as relational beings, recognises the way that law affects these relationships, and frames law’s objective(s) in a relational way. This article is heavily influenced and draws from Jennifer Nedelsky’s book Law’s Relations: A Relational Theory of Self, Autonomy, and Law. […]
Our planet, the natural world we live in and with, is being destroyed by us. It is more than that we are damaging our environment, what surrounds us; we are destroying the conditions which we need to live and survive. This has been known for years, yet still we continue. Climate change is probably the […]
Interconnected Law is came out of three sets of existing scholarship: Earth Jurisprudence, relational approaches to law, and systems theory. Each of these both critiques existing legal systems (in the context of broader political, economic and social systems) and proposes how law should be instead. It seemed to me that these should be drawn together […]
Law’s current goal is mostly around securing individual right and individual freedom. It might be said that it’s about delivering justice, but justice is a broad and disputed concept, and can mean different things from different underlying values and worldviews. Justice as usually meant in the neoliberal sense is about individual right and individual freedom: […]
In our world we face a plethora of crises. Society is breaking down, with growing economic inequality, an increase in far-right politics and violence against marginalised communities, and we face multiple ecological crises, climate change and biodiversity and freshwater to name a few. Culturally, there are crises in mental health and loneliness, and a loss […]