There are much more serious laws for shoplifting than polluting our environment and making it uninhabitable. Why is one theft and dealt with in the criminal law system, and why is one dealt with under civil law, and with smaller punishments?
Because our colonial systems weren’t built to protect people first.
They were built to protect property, trade, and markets.
What Our Legal System Was Built to Protect
Current law – especially in Australia and the UK – evolved out of a very different set of priorities:
• Common law was designed to settle disputes over land and contracts, not safeguard human health.
• Environmental legislation came later, and focused on regulating resource extraction and pollution
Laws based in the British or French cultural systems, historically did not value the land. They viewed it as something to be owned and controlled. If we compare this other systems that took care of the land such as Inuit or Aboriginal, we see that systems and customs protected the land, as a vital part of the system.
In short:
Our health is not considered an important part of our western/colonial legal, trade, or economic systems. Should this change? My argument is yes.
Reimagining What Justice Looks Like
If we’re serious about climate justice, we have to rethink what and who our laws are built to protect, support and safeguard.
Justice means putting life at the centre of every decision.
It means recognising that a liveable climate isn’t a luxury. It’s a right.
Our colonial laws were built to protect property – not people. Let’s reimagine the laws to reflect what justice should look like in a warming world.
Some examples of this being done well in western law include:
France, banning fast fashion
In the UK, the special measures to protect water.
In Victoria, Australia, the Climate Change Act is asking all directors of government departments to have regard to climate change across all decision making.
Or perhaps it’s time to hand back decision making to indigenous owners of the land (outside of Europe), who have taken far better care of the planet than we have.
Let me know your solutions too.
Tellus your thoughts!