The Anthropocene Judgments project: A thought experiment in futureproofing the common law

Abstract

We introduce here a new critical judgments project: the Anthropocene Judgments project. The project is intended to be an interdisciplinary, collaborative, visionary initiative, a collective effort on the part of legal scholars, writers of speculative fiction, literary scholars and climate scientists to anticipate what may lie ahead. Participants will engage in futuristic modelling and write judgments of, and for, the future – constructing innovative pathways of legal reasoning to address the novel, socio-legal and environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. In this article, we develop our ideas for the project, canvass possible directions for future judgment writing and explain the importance of this ambitious endeavour.