including the impacts of these actions on the Earth system and the impacts of other
Earth system processes on human existence. The Anthropocene in this sense allows
for an opening up of hitherto prohibitive epistemic ‘closures’ in the law, of legal
discourse more generally, and of the world order that the law operatively seeks to
maintain, to a range of other understandings of, and cognitive frameworks for,
global environmental change. It further reveals the context to contemplate possible
ways to more innovatively mediate this change through the law.
Embracing many of the foregoing considerations, this book is squarely aimed at
addressing the underexplored role of law and legal science in relation to the
Anthropocene. Edited by Michelle Lim, one of Australia’s leading environmental
lawyers, the book offers an impressive collection of critical reflections on the
myriad of emerging challenges for environmental law in the Anthropocene, while at
once also describing the importance of, and critically urgent need for, developing
strategies to deal with the Anthropocene’s mounting socio-ecological crisis. To this
end, the bo ok very specifically focuses on the role of environmental law in shaping
sustainable futures. But the book also aims to do more than this: representing an
impressive collection of jurisdi ctions from around the globe, it provides rich cos-
mopolitan perspectives from an emerging generation of environmental lawyers to
voice their concerns and views in relation to environmental law futures in the
Anthropocene, while it also seeks to foster intergenerational dialogue through
contributions from established scholars. To this end, contributors to the volume
broadly reflect on a range of burning questions including: critically redefining the
human–environment relationship in the Anthropocene; the imperative of main-
taining planetary order while improving international collaboration; ways to
implement transformative law and governance for sustainable and equitable futures;
and finally, a forward-looking research agenda that must further interrogate the
place and role of environmental law in the Anthropocene.
While one can easily become despondent in the face of the seemingly insur-
mountable challenges that the Anthropocene throws up for humanity, this book is
proof that there is an alternative, more sanguine narrative out there that speaks of
hope and that encourages us to resolutely confront the socio-ecological crisis of the
Anthropocene in innovative and creative ways through the art and craft of envi-
ronmental law.
Louis J. Kotzé
Research Professor of Law
North-West University
Potchefstroom, South Africa
vi Foreword