Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and the Law of the Commons

The vast majority of the world's scientists agree: we have reached a point in history where we are in grave danger of destroying Earth's life-sustaining capacity. But our attempts to protect natural ecosystems are increasingly ineffective because our very conception of the problem is limited; we treat 'the environment' as its own separate realm, taking for granted prevailing but outmoded conceptions of economics, national sovereignty and international law. Green Governance is a direct response to the mounting calls for a paradigm shift in the way humans relate to the natural environment. It opens the door to a new set of solutions by proposing a compelling new synthesis of environmental protection based on broader notions of economics and human rights and on commons-based governance. Going beyond speculative abstractions, the book proposes a new architecture of environmental law and public policy that is as practical as it is theoretically sound.

1. Trends that point toward a new synthesis; 2. The human right to a clean and healthy environment; 3. The quest for a new rights-based pathway; 4. Making the conceptual transition to the new paradigm; 5. The commons as a model for ecological governance; 6. The rise of the commons movement globally; 7. Imagining a new architecture of law and policy to support the ecological commons; 8. Catalytic strategies for achieving green governance.