5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

In his 1986 book “Ecological Communication”, sociologist Niklas Luhmann pessimistically ascertains that the level of complexity of modern society cannot easily be swayed towards making the necessary, life-preserving changes in order to solve what already then was identified as the ‘environmental problem’. Since then, there have been several attempts – especially in the regulatory and legal spheres – to address environmental concerns, especially in their tension with economic imperatives of growth and consumption. From soft-law voluntary agreements, international treaties, extra-territorial legal challenges to both companies and states to outright legal or constitutional change, the legal system, irritated by environmental concerns, communicates legally about the environment in different, sometimes innovative ways.

This panel proposes to discuss the different ways in which justice, for example related to ‘the environment’, ‘nature’, ‘environmental degradation’ and other issues are communicated about, especially in the legal system. Papers could focus on voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting of private companies and other types of Business and Human Rights; Climate Adaptation urban planning requirements; European Court of Human Rights decisions regarding State’s responsibilities towards its citizens regarding negative consequences of climate change; all the way to legal innovations in Global Value Chain law. What different types of communication emerge, and what are their implications and consequences both to the legal systems in which they occur, and to the possibilities of justice in the Anthropocene?

(Session organized by RCSL Working Group Social and Legal Systems)