From Globalisation to Planetarisation: The Principle of Interdependence as a Vector for a New Law of the Earth: The Lex Anthropocenae

Abstract

The principle of interdependence is the core of the idea of a Common Home, a notion introduced into the public debate by the encyclical Laudato si’, and one which is essential to overcome the anthropocentric narrowness of the ethical–legal normativity on which the Rule of Law is based. The theological contribution to the formulation of the principle of interdependence is embedded in a rich legal–philosophical tradition, which has in C. Schmitt a leading exponent. Thanks to the juridical spatial turn outlined by this author, we may recognize that law regulates not only inter-human relations but also inter-system relations between society and the Earth’s ecosystem. To implement a corresponding structural change, however, we need move beyond Schmittian reductionism, which univocally associates the idea of law with the physical dimension of the occupation of space and its rational inscription as property and sovereignty, a form of predatory appropriation and domination which has brought us to the threshold of the current global ecological and political disorder. Only by juridically implementing interdependence as a new regulator of the relationship between Earth and society and of the relations between peoples can we politically govern and solve the ongoing (ecological, health, social, and international) world crisis.