The Ecology of Law

It's time for us to change the order!

This order, where private property is considered a "natural right" and natural resources, which should be the common heritage of all living beings on earth, are plundered and exploited, cannot continue. Placing the focus of the debate on the Western tradition of science and law, The Ecology of Law argues that the environmental, social, and economic crisis we are experiencing globally today stems from a mechanistic view that sees the world as a "machine" and declares humans its owners. Scientist Fritjof Capra and jurist Ugo Mattei believe that natural sciences and law have progressed in parallel since antiquity and that these two disciplines have had a great influence on each other. According to them, the path to change lies in the laws that determine the way of life of society and the power of states and corporations ceasing to be products of the existing, mechanistic view and being re-created by the communities themselves in light of ecological principles. Fritjof Capra is a physicist and systems theorist, and the founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy, which aims to promote ecological perspective and systems thinking at the primary and secondary education levels.

Ugo Mattei is a professor of law at Hastings College of the Law in the USA and the University of Turin in Italy.

(From the Promotion Bulletin)