Interdisciplinary Student Symposium

The Society for Earth Law’s Student Symposium is designed as an interdisciplinary, dynamic, forward-thinking international forum where students from multiple universities and fields of study can discuss multidimensional, eco-centric solutions to the current polycrisis. The current economies and societal norms around the world place significant emphasis the individual; an individual estranged from Nature and the ecosystems within which they live. This separation, this ego-centrism, is a root cause of many of the problems we are encountering today. Human ego pushes the boundaries of the planet, emphasizing accumulation and celebrating acquisition despite the climate impacts which grow worse year after year. It is also this ego-centrism, the belief that humans can control Nature and stand outside of it in our “civilized” world, that gave rise to the standard environmental law focus on managing human use and abuse of Nature. Earth Law operates on the premise that ecosystems possess inherent legal rights—shifting nature from a piece of property to a rights-bearing entity. This premise, that Nature has the same kind of inherent rights to exist and flourish that humans have, echoes the ancient knowledge of those most connected to Nature, those that have been living in relationship with their ecosystem, at least as much as modern society will let them. Earth Law encompasses these perspectives, indeed these are the Laws of the Earth.