In Pursuit of the Global within: A Structure for the Global Law Project

This short essay takes as its point of departure the truism that ‘the global’ is omnipresent. ‘Intimations of the global’, to borrow from Neil Walker, are therefore as likely to be uncovered by studying domestic legal systems most familiar to us, as they are by pointing our lens at what is alien. If the global is understood in this way, i.e. as referring to the basic building blocks common to all legal systems, then two settings appear to offer prima facie fertile ground for unraveling the global. First, if laws employ open terminology or otherwise afford considerable discretion (e.g. as in the case of ‘procedural autonomy’), it may be premised that when in such cases it is (empirically) established that in reality certain rules act to further constrain such freedom, those rules could be of a ‘global’ character. Obversely, when legal rules claim an absolute status, in the sense that they tolerate not exception (as in the case of the supremacy of EU law), factual departures from that absolute rule again may be regarded as intimations of the global

Constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene thesis, in its rejection of both the modernist separation between ‘humans’ and ‘nonhumans’ as well as in its treatment of ‘humans’ as a singular global geophysical force, presents fundamental challenges to constitutional theory and practice. First, in terms of conceptual and foundational transformations, the Anthropocene provokes the reconceptualization of legal relations as never being limited to human concerns, but as always and already part of more-than-human collectives. These legal relations are organized by the coagency of humans and nonhumans, in recognition of shared vulnerabilities and in relations premised on care. This reconceptualization demands a new understanding of representational practices that could constitutionalize more-than-human relations as political and legal collectives. Second, emergent technologies such as genetic and climate engineering introduce fundamental questions about regulatory modalities available in the Anthropocene, and the role that law plays in this regard. Such technologies have given rise to the possibility of ‘ruling by design’, by technologically mediating ‘natural’ forces or Earth system processes to achieve pre-established regulatory goals. This possibility raises critical concerns about the remaining role for law in legitimising and enabling such developments. Finally, the temporal dimensions of the Anthropocene thesis cast a critical light on law’s potential for driving radical transformations in (un)governance. In imagining future legal architectures capable of manifesting more-than-human constitutionalism, it is necessary to excavate the historical role that foundational legal principles and institutions – such as sovereignty and personhood – have had in facilitating exploitative relations between and beyond humans

Bottom up ethics - neuroenhancement in education and employment

Neuroenhancement involves the use of neurotechnologies to improve cognitive, affective or behavioural functioning, where these are not judged to be clinically impaired. Questions about enhancement have become one of the key topics of neuroethics over the past decade. The current study draws on in-depth public engagement activities in ten European countries giving a bottom-up perspective on the ethics and desirability of enhancement. This informed the design of an online contrastive vignette experiment that was administered to representative samples of 1000 respondents in the ten countries and the United States. The experiment investigated how the gender of the protagonist, his or her level of performance, the efficacy of the enhancer and the mode of enhancement affected support for neuroenhancement in both educational and employment contexts. Of these, higher efficacy and lower performance were found to increase willingness to support enhancement. A series of commonly articulated claims about the individual and societal dimensions of neuroenhancement were derived from the public engagement activities. Underlying these claims, multivariate analysis identified two social values. The Societal/Protective highlights counter normative consequences and opposes the use enhancers. The Individual/Proactionary highlights opportunities and supports use. For most respondents these values are not mutually exclusive. This suggests that for many neuroenhancement is viewed simultaneously as a source of both promise and concern

Natuur en rechtspersoon in het Antropoceen

Steeds vaker kiezen landen ervoor om rechtspersoonlijkheid te verlenen aan onderdelen van de natuur. Deze korte bijdrage bespreekt die ontwikkeling tegen de achtergrond van het Antropoceen, het tijdperk waarin menselijke invloeden op de aarde voor mens en natuur bepalender en bedreigender zijn dan de grote natuurkrachten. In zoverre het verlenen van rechten aan de natuur bijdraagt aan het opheffen van de valse en gevaarlijk gebleken tweedeling tussen mens en natuur is deze juridische innovatie positief. Of ze daarnaast ook een verbetering van het milieu zal bewerkstelligen hangt af van de gekozen modaliteit