Challenging International Environmental Law’s Heteronormativity and Anthropocentrism: Towards Queer Kinship

Jones, E

doi:10.4324/9781032645339-3

Challenging International Environmental Law’s Heteronormativity and Anthropocentrism: Towards Queer Kinship

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Emily Jones

Downloads

Published version [.pdf]

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Abstract

International environmental law has been critiqued for being anthropocentric, centring the human subject and prioritising elite human interests. International environmental law also contains certain heteronormative values, this being exemplified by the idea that the law should protect the environment for the sake of future generations – a concept that imagines the future of humanity and the entire world as being in the hands of human children, centring human reproductive futurism. This chapter applies queer theories of the nonhuman and of kinship to international environmental law, seeking to address some of these concerns. It does so by applying queer studies to three examples: the principle of the common heritage of humankind, rights as applied to environmental issues – including human rights and the environment and the rights of nature – and the responsibility owed to future generations. Through these examples and drawing on queer theories of hope, it is argued that a queer notion of kinship, one that centres around multiple human-nonhuman connections, may be used to queer international environmental law. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the risks and potentials of queering international environmental law.