Abstract
[Extract]
My intention here is to play with the established parameters of orthodox judging practices. I want to explore what judging might become when emphasis shifts from the past and present to the future, when litigants include the as yet unborn, when nonhuman beings weigh in on the judging process. This is the terrain of wild judging, or judging wildly: judging which disregards, or perhaps transcends, the rules and disciplinary constraints of Holocene-era law and charts new paths in response to the urgent planetary concerns of the Anthropocene.1 My particular focus is on the opportunities, possibilities and challenges of interspecies and inter-generational judging. Wild judging has achieved only limited acceptance in today’s courtrooms. In reflecting upon wilder possibilities of judging, I turn to thought experiments in speculative and ecological fiction in which writers attempt to portray nonhuman sensibilities and ways of experiencing the world. I look to fictitious explorations of intergenerational human judgement and align these with contemporary social movements and lawsuits. Drawing upon insights from ecocritical theorists and the interdisciplinary response to the concept and dilemmas of the Anthropocene, as well as contemporary textual case studies, I contemplate this question: can speculative and ecological fiction contribute to new under-standings of judging so that judging practices become, truly, wild?
My intention here is to play with the established parameters of orthodox judging practices. I want to explore what judging might become when emphasis shifts from the past and present to the future, when litigants include the as yet unborn, when nonhuman beings weigh in on the judging process. This is the terrain of wild judging, or judging wildly: judging which disregards, or perhaps transcends, the rules and disciplinary constraints of Holocene-era law and charts new paths in response to the urgent planetary concerns of the Anthropocene.1 My particular focus is on the opportunities, possibilities and challenges of interspecies and inter-generational judging. Wild judging has achieved only limited acceptance in today’s courtrooms. In reflecting upon wilder possibilities of judging, I turn to thought experiments in speculative and ecological fiction in which writers attempt to portray nonhuman sensibilities and ways of experiencing the world. I look to fictitious explorations of intergenerational human judgement and align these with contemporary social movements and lawsuits. Drawing upon insights from ecocritical theorists and the interdisciplinary response to the concept and dilemmas of the Anthropocene, as well as contemporary textual case studies, I contemplate this question: can speculative and ecological fiction contribute to new under-standings of judging so that judging practices become, truly, wild?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Research Handbook on Law and Literature |
| Editors | Peter Goodrich, Daniela Gandorfer, Cecilia Gebruers |
| Publisher | Edward Elgar Publishing |
| Chapter | 13 |
| Pages | 250-270 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781839102264 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781839102257 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 25 Mar 2022 |
| Externally published | Yes |