Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Environmental Law: Hospice for a Dying Planet
- Part II The People’s Natural Trust
- Part III The Public Trust and the Great Transition
- 12 Nature’s Trust and the Heart of Humanity
- 13 Using Earth’s Interest, Not Its Principal
- 14 The Public Trust and Private Property Rights
- 15 The New World: A Planetary Trust
- Notes
- Index
12 - Nature’s Trust and the Heart of Humanity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Environmental Law: Hospice for a Dying Planet
- Part II The People’s Natural Trust
- Part III The Public Trust and the Great Transition
- 12 Nature’s Trust and the Heart of Humanity
- 13 Using Earth’s Interest, Not Its Principal
- 14 The Public Trust and Private Property Rights
- 15 The New World: A Planetary Trust
- Notes
- Index
Summary
When a legal framework is severed from the moral pulse of humanity, it staggers as a moribund hulk of admonition. At worst it can become the instrument of tyrants. As Ronald D. Dworkin emphasizes, “Moral principle is the foundation of law.” Law must tap the deepest moral understandings of humanity not only to maintain credibility and respect in society at large, but also to inspire citizens to participate in democracy. When the citizens lose sight of the purposes served by law, they cease to engage their own government. Democracy degenerates from there into a faux-democracy in which the citizens assume they have power but actually do not.
This chapter picks up a theme from Part I that environmental law has lost much of its citizen support. The discussion begins by suggesting why statutory environmental law fails to inspire ecological protection. It then explores how the Nature’s Trust paradigm shift can galvanize citizens by harnessing the power of moral thinking around the public trust, a doctrine that retrieves essential human wisdom deposited by the ancients.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Nature's TrustEnvironmental Law for a New Ecological Age, pp. 261 - 281Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013