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CES News

Delay in Publication of 2018 Journal on The Ecozoic Way: CES Foundational Papers

 We made a big push to get this issue off to the printer at the end of December 2018. At that time we sent the manuscript to several leaders in Thomas Berry’s work and they suggested important changes which involved additional writing. Completing this issue gave way to work on the Living Legacy of Thomas Berry event and the Earth Law textbook (see below). We now expect to send the issue to the printer by the end of February, and the issue will be published in March and distributed in late March or early April. The table of contents of the issue is available here.

Each person who was a 2018 CES member or is a 2019 CES member will receive a copy. Information on becoming a 2019 member is available at the end of this issue of The Ecozoic Review. Others may purchase a copy for $25, plus postage, by contacting ecozoic.studies@gmail.com.

The Living Legacy of Thomas Berry Event, May 30-June 1, 2019, in the foothills of North Carolina

CES is joining with six other Thomas Berry- related groups in the Piedmont area of North Carolina in sponsoring “The Living Legacy of Thomas Berry” event, May 30-June 1, 2019 with optional pre-conference events on May 29.

The event will feature a day of reflecting at Timberlake Earth Sanctuary in Whitsett, NC, and a day of sharing and a day of renewing and celebrating at the Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain. Attendance will be limited to 100 people. Since there are seven sponsoring groups this means each group may only have fourteen invitees attend. Given this, registration is by invitation only at the present time. If you have questions about this event or wish to receive an invitation if space is available, please contact laurie@ecozoicstudies.org.

 Earth Law Textbook

Grant Wilson and Tony Zelle of the Earth Law Centerare now working with a team of over twenty lawyers in preparing the first comprehensive textbook for law students on Earth law. Herman Greene of CES has joined the team as one of four lead editors and as coordinating author of the introduction and of the chapters on the emergence of Earth law and special issues in Earth law.

Earth law has developed in many places as people see a need to keep human impact within planetary boundaries and prospectively protect the health of ecosystems and also in general change the relationship of humans with the natural world. It has arisen spontaneously in various parts of the world, sometimes in connection with Thomas Berry (see below) and sometimes not.  This textbook aims to expose students to the full range of approaches to Earth law and invite them into lifelong collective research and action for the further development of Earth law.

One of Thomas Berry’s last initiatives concerned Earth jurisprudence. He lamented that in law only humans have rights and called for nature to have rights. In Evening Thoughts(2003), he laid out his “Ten Principles for Jurisprudence Revision.” His work led directly to the formation of an Earth Jurisprudence program at the Gaia Foundation in London and the Earth Jurisprudence Center at Barry University Law School in Florida. Later Cormac Cullinan wrote a seminal book called Wild Law, which was followed by Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence,edited by Peter Burdon. Now there are various centers of Earth Law, Wild Law, Ecological Law, and Earth jurisprudence—all of which aim at taking environmental law to greater depth and giving standing to nature in the legal system. Ecuador and Bolivia have both given rights to nature in their constitutions.

“Process as Creativity–Process as Concern,” Twelfth International Whitehead Conference, August 27-30, 2019, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

 Herman Greene of CES will give a keynote lecture at the above-referenced conference on “The History, Meaning, and Purpose of the International Process Network.” He will also co-chair the section on “Ecological Civilization, Ecology, Ethics, Economics, and Law.” Scholars from around the world will join in this conference and papers delivered will span a wide range of disciplines. The unifying element of the conference is process-relational philosophy as developed by Alfred North Whitehead. In this philosophy creativity is the ontological ultimate. Our intentions and choices as humans are real (not causally predetermined or random), and the future, subject to the conditions of existence at that time, is open. This is true not only for humans but in varying degrees for all that has been from the beginning and is now. Everything has a psychic-spiritual as well as a physical dimension. As the universe evolves, complexity, consciousness, richness of experience, and possibility increase.