Earth jurisprudence and civil disobedience

Abstract

This paper looks at theories of civil disobedience in the context of the emerging field of earth jurisprudence. Do the principles of earth jurisprudence provide a framework for assessing whether environmental injustice justifies acts of civil disobedience? If so, what acts of civil jurisprudence are justified? Is the Rawslian conception of civil disobedience to be preferred with its emphasis on public, non-violent acts of ‘symbolic’ civil disobedience? The conclusion of this paper is that earth jurisprudence provides a moral justification for acts of civil disobedience, but the Rawlsian conception of civil disobedience imposes unnecessary practical and theoretical constraints on the civilly disobedient individual.