Gaia and Pachamama in the “ecocentric” jurisprudence: Beyond anthropocentrism?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/isegoria.2025.72.1651Keywords:
Gaia, Pachamama, ecocentric jurisprudence, rights of nature, capitalocene, socioecological justiceAbstract
This article proposes to approach ‘ecocentric’ jurisprudence in order to assess the role that concepts as Gaia and Pachamama are playing in it. The article first analyses the current "greening" of the law, and the concept of socio-ecological justice. Secondly, it describes two propositions within this field: the Earth Systems Law and the rights of nature. Furthermore, the text delineates two fundamental concepts of nature that exert a significant influence on it: Gaia and Pachamama, analysing the conceptual compatibility or incompatibility between this two concepts. On the basis of this conceptual work, a qualitative analysis of “ecocentric” sentences is then conducted. It assesses the relevance of the notions of Gaia and Pachamama in these decisions, and determines whether these concepts are presented as antagonistic or complementary. Finally, it assesses whether this supposed 'ecocentric' shift in jurisprudence is leading to an analogous political change in the reasoning of the judgments, shifting away from the anthropocentric utilitarianism of notions such as sustainable development.
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