Anthropocene Accountability Litigation
The 缅北强奸 Journal of Sustainable Development Law (MJSDL) welcomes Professor , Rechnitz Family and Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy, Monmouth University, New Jersey, for a remote conference on environmental law and factory farming.
Abstract
This presentation offers a new perspective in the quest for climate justice. It addresses creative common law and statutory law theories that seek to hold fossil fuel companies and concentrated animal feeding operations (鈥淐AFOs鈥� or 鈥渇actory farms鈥�) accountable for their role as 鈥渃ommon enemies鈥� in harming humans, the environment, and animals by exacerbating climate change while profiting from their operations. Myriad cutting-edge lawsuits against these industries are underway in the U.S. in the past few years, but there has been no scholarly inquiry that unites the theories from the environmental law (fossil fuel companies) and animal law (CAFOs) domains into one analysis.
This presentation will evaluate these efforts in a broader context to explore how the environmental and animal law movements can collaborate more effectively around the issue of climate change to secure mutual gains in protecting humans, animals, and the environment. It explores how the two movements need to leverage public and private governance mechanisms to promote transitions away from reliance on carbon-intensive fossil fuel use and methane-intensive factory farms as significant drivers of the U.S. economy at the expense of the environment, animals, and public health in the Anthropocene era.
About the speaker
Randall S. Abate is the inaugural Rechnitz Family and Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy, and a Professor in the Department of Political Science and Sociology, at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. He also serves as the Director of the Institute for Global Understanding at Monmouth. He teaches courses in domestic and international environmental law, climate justice, constitutional law, and animal law.
