Course Descriptions

Earth Law represents a new form of law, economics, and governance that recognizes the inherent rights of the natural world to exist, thrive, and evolve. This course will show how the concepts of Earth Law can be taken into existing and new environmental and human rights advocacy efforts to reverse the trend of injury to the Earth and its systems. To do so, the class will examine the limitations of current advocacy initiatives (particularly regarding their role in perpetuating the myth of separation and servitude of nature) and address the question of how to bring the language of connection and rights of nature to current and future environmental advocates. Finally, the class will include an experiential exercise in which students participate in a mock, structured environmental advocacy initiative from the perspective of Earth Law. The class will also include a final paper that calls on students to apply the concepts of the class to real-world fact sets.