Earthbound: The Aesthetics of Sovereignty in the Anthropocene

Daniel Matthews shows how sovereignty - the organising principle for modern law and politics - depends on a distinctive aesthetics that ensures that we see, feel and order the world in such a way that keeps the realities of climate change and ecological destruction largely 'off stage'. Through analysis of a range of legal, literary, ecological and philosophical texts, this book outlines the significance of this aesthetic organisation of power and explores how it might be transformed in an effort to attend to the various challenges associated with the Anthropocene, setting the grounds for a new, ecologically attuned, critical jurisprudence.

Author: Daniel Matthews
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 08/31/2021
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.56d
ISBN: 9781474455305

About the Author

Daniel Matthews is Assistant Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the Law and Literary Studies BA/LLB programme at the University of Hong Kong. He teaches and publishes in the fields of legal theory and law and literature with a particular focus on questions of sovereignty, jurisdiction and political community. He is co-editor, with Scott Veitch, of Law, Obligation, Community (Routledge, 2018) and co-editor, with Tara Mulqueen, of Being Social: Ontology, Law, Politics (Counterpress, 2016). He serves on the editorial committees of Law and Critique and Law and Literature, where he is currently book reviews editor.