The constitution of the natural

Research Project

This project begins with the hypothesis that we are witnessing a fundamental change in the relationship of regulatory law and ecological, living, and planetary processes. Law – or more precisely modern law – has thus far been dominated by a dichotomous understanding of the regulation of the ecological, the living, and the planetary. However, approaches from a variety of disciplines claim that law is entangled in the material production and design of natural, living, and planetary processes. This raises fundamental legal-theoretical questions about how a proper and just law of regulating living, ecological, planetary processes can be conceived. Drawing on a variety of recent philosophical and critical approaches, this project investigates whether and to what extent a transformative understanding of the relationship between normativity and nature can contribute to a just regulation of living, ecological and planetary processes.