A timeline, starting from the announcement in 2001 and spanning to the selection of construction contractors in 2012, summarizes the astounding scope of litigation, politics and electrical utility contracts. Together with analysis of the major cases intended to block Cape Wind, is a look at the history of the Environmental Justice (EJ) movement. With the late entrance of Native American Tribes into the fray, the significance of EJ in current state and federal policy is now being used in reverse as a weapon to strike against Cape Wind, for the benefit of Cape Cod’s well-heeled residents.

This article summarizes environmental justice efforts at the national level and in Georgia. It also explores the relationship between federal environmental justice policies and the absence of such policies from Georgia’s delegated environmental programs. This article then provides recommendations for indirect action to be taken by the federal government to encourage Georgia to incorporate environmental justice into permit decision-making.

Congress has given the President authority to permanently relocate an Indian tribe or Alaska Native village under CERCLA Section 9626(b). This article proposes that the President exercise such authority to protect the health and welfare of Kivalina and its residents. In view of the longstanding trust obligation of the United States to Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages, which is embodied in treaties, statutes, executive orders and court decisions, the President should exercise his clear authority to protect the Village from harm.

Abstract by Traci Lynne Timmons

Thomas Berry, father of the Earth Jurisprudence movement, called for re-examining human-Earth relations. Earth Jurisprudence aspires to promote a greater respect for nature and all living things on Earth, aiming to intertwine Earth’s natural law with the body of law that governs humanity. This paper explores Earth Jurisprudence as an alternative to the property regime in the United States. It examines the fundamental principles of property ownership, frequently attributed to the philosophy of John Locke, but digs deeper into these “Lockean” roots to reveal important caveats to Locke’s general principles which have been overlooked in modern times. This paper also applies the influential philosophy of Locke to the budding legal field of Earth Jurisprudence, and to the ever-expanding science that is the study of the Earth and its being.

Specifically, this paper addresses the philosophy of John Locke and how it has contributed to our overly anthropocentric (human-centered) views of nature as a commodity or resource for human use. When the Founding Fathers contemplated the values for which the United States would stand, an important part of Locke’s theory was ignored—the Framers ignored the proviso that one must leave “enough and as good for others.” Once Locke’s theories are more fully understood and thoughtfully applied, they are actually consistent with the principles of Earth Jurisprudence. This paper takes a fresh look at Lockean theory, and uncovers a more symbiotic or mutualistic relationship for humans and nature in the human-Earth balance.

Abstract by Mark Hopson

Contrary to popular opinion, and the vast majority of legal scholarship on the subject, the traditional American model for a national park is scientifically and logically unsound. Further, this model has been adopted at a terrible social cost to the indigenous tribes who lived on the land that became national parks. Every government that has chosen to implement the American national park model has done so at the expense of indigenous people.

This article chronicles the creation of the world’s first national parks, Yosemite and Yellowstone, and the legal battles involved. The article then shifts to explain how this model was exported, without any modifications for culture, history or ecology, across the continent of Africa with disastrous results. The final focus is on the use of this model to save great apes, like the bonobo, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a failed state that is still recovering from what many refer to as “Africa’s World War.” The bonobo is found exclusively within a few areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and mostly within a single national park where the Iyaelima people, an indigenous tribe, also resides. Like the indigenous tribes of America before them, these traditional peoples now face destruction in the name of conservation. Ultimately, the author proposes a democratic and inclusive process where indigenous populations craft their own harmonious protective measures.

Abstract by Samuel Alexander

Story, myth, and narrative played a central role in Thomas Berry’s writings. He told new stories about the Universe and our place in it, stories not only about where we have been and where we seem to be going, but also stories about where we could go, if only we exercised our freedom in different ways. Inspired by Berry, in this paper I have dared to experiment with story, by attempting to look back on the 21st century from the vantage point of the year 2099. Motivated and informed by various themes in Earth Jurisprudence, the futuristic reflections detailed in this paper review how attitudes toward consumption and economic growth underwent a radical shift over the course of the 21st century and how this affected, through legal reform, the social, economic, and political order of late capitalism. Particular attention is given to the legal evolution of property rights and the cultural movements that made this evolution possible.

This is an ambitious and hopeful project. It aims to go “beyond critique” by describing an alternative legal and political order to late capitalism and by outlining the process of transition. Despite being conceived between the poles of pessimism and optimism, this story is nevertheless based upon a faith in the human spirit to meet the challenges of creating an Ecozoic era. Though I cannot be sure Berry would have agreed with all the conclusions drawn or speculations made, I believe he would have been sympathetic to this general undertaking.

by Patrick Tolan

Profound scholar and author, Father Thomas Berry, recognized and related human destiny to the destiny of the universe. In his book, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future, and in his teaching, Berry challenged humanity to enter into a new era in harmony with the universe. This article is a tribute to Thomas Berry, recognizing the importance of his contribution to a new and emerging field of Earth Jurisprudence and launching an Earth Jurisprudence and Environmental Justice Journal that will afford thinkers and scholars the opportunity to continue his great work.

Like Thoreau and Aldo Leopold, Thomas Berry shared a profound respect for the Earth and advocated a deeper understanding of the need to treat the Earth and her bountiful resources prudently and ethically. To these core values, Berry added additional wisdom, insight, and perception that captures the messages of earlier authors, but adds the dimension of spirituality. Through the lens of decades of religious studies of the East and the West, Native and indigenous traditions and established religions, Berry saw the tapestry of spiritual truth in creation and extended this understanding to the necessary interplay of humans as but one constituent element which ought to function in harmony with all of the universe. Recognizing the laws of nature trump the laws of man is critical to reorienting behavior to what is ultimately sustainable and eternal. While earlier writers acknowledge a need for a healing approach and a need for laws that both heal and restore balance, Berry understood that these needs are intrinsic as well as communal; that each individual conscious self was part of a greater universal self.

Berry asks us to re-envision human-Earth relations as we enter an Ecozoic Era where humans may not simply rely on the regenerative powers of the Earth herself, but also must engage in a cultural paradigm shift toward a viable human situation on a viable planet. Continuing the great work requires exploring and developing these opportunities for conversion. Reinventing law and governance systems so that all beings could be legally protected as subjects and not objects was at the core of his thinking. More specifically, in the field of law and jurisprudence, Berry calls for a paradigm where inherent rights exist not just for people, but “the inherent rights of the natural world are recognized as having legal status.” The challenge then, for an Earth Jurisprudence, is identifying a legal framework conducive to a mutually enhancing Earth-human relationship.

While this humble tribute can’t approach the eloquence of Thomas Berry, whose prose was “more akin to that of poetry, art, myth, or storytelling,” it can help to introduce those who don’t know Thomas Berry to his life and work, and can serve to remind those who knew him of what made him so special. It is fitting not only to reflect upon and pay tribute to his profound contributions, but also to consider pathways forward. The best way to honor Thomas Berry’s teaching is to continue in his great work. As Thomas Berry explained, “[a]ll creatures of Earth are looking to us for their destiny. Among these are our children and grandchildren, who depend on our decisions for the sustenance and flourishing of the life systems of the planet. This remains one of our primary challenges in the twenty-first century.”