Law and Responsibility in the Anthropocene Epoch
Luca d’AMBROSIO, février 2017
In the past few decades, the Anthropocene epoch concept, designating a new era in geological history marked by human activities, has been integrated into several dynamics at work in the field of law.
This research falls under a broad program aiming to federate a number of researchers in social and human sciences of major University of Paris research centers.
The research, coordinated by Luca d’Ambrosio, in charge of research at the Collège de France, Mireille Delmas-Marty, professor emeritus at the Collège de France, and Pauline Barraud de Lagerie, falls under a broader program aiming to federate a number of researchers in social and human sciences of major University of Paris research centers. See www.univ-psl.fr. In the past few decades, the Anthropocene epoch concept, designating a new era in geological history marked by human activities, has been integrated into several dynamics at work in the field of law.
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On the one hand, new normalcies have been observed, conveyed by concepts and processes that could be called “planetization of the law” (security of the planet, ecocide, future generations, etc.) The research aims to study these new concepts and processes as well as the ambivalences of their implementation in the legal field.
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On the other hand, the Anthropocene renews the question of responsibility: by analyzing procedures underpinning the self-production of standards (corporate social responsibility) and their possible interactions with the law, the research aims to study and identify the actors, the justifications supporting this process of building corporate moral and solidarity-based responsibility, and to analyze from a comparative standpoint the various legal mechanisms involved in its implementation.
After a first workshop organized in September 2016 at the University of Cambridge and a seminar organized at the EHESS in February 2017, there will be two conferences, in October 2017 and March 2018.
See the project « Changes in responsibility: dialogue between jurists and civil society », here.