Winner, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award in Politics/Current Events: A systems theorist and a legal scholar present a new paradigm for protecting our planet.   This is the first book to trace the fascinating parallel history of law and science from antiquity to modern times, showing how the two disciplines have always influenced each other—until recently. In the past few decades, science has shifted from seeing the natural world as a kind of cosmic machine best understood by analyzing each cog and sprocket to a systems perspective that views the world as a vast network of fluid communities and studies their dynamic interactions. The concept of ecology exemplifies this approach. But law is stuck in the old mechanistic paradigm: The world is simply a collection of discrete parts, and ownership of these parts is an individual right, protected by the state. Fritjof Capra, physicist, systems theorist, and bestselling author of The Tao of Physics , and distinguished legal scholar Ugo Mattei show that this obsolete worldview has led to overconsumption, pollution, and a general disregard on the part of the powerful for the common good.   Capra and Mattei outline the basic concepts and structures of a legal order consistent with the ecological principles that sustain life on Earth that better addresses many of the economic and social crises we face today. This is a visionary reconceptualization of the very foundations of the Western legal system, a kind of Copernican revolution in the law, with profound implications for the future of our planet.   “Thoughtful . . . The authors propose a philosophy and jurisprudence that is deeply radical—upending centuries of Western tradition and culture—but possibly crucial to solving looming environmental problems.” — Publishers Weekly “The modern-day legal system is seldom tied to current unsustainable ecological practices. Yet in this thoughtful treatise, co-authors Capra and Mattei show how tenets of western jurisprudence, such as private property rights and eminent domain, have eradicated older precepts. Natural resources were considered 'commons' that belonged to no one, to be shared by everyone. This older way of thinking gradually disappeared as community-based justice was replaced by codified laws serving elites, as in ancient Rome. American law, inherited largely from the English common law tradition, developed under the influence of Enlightenment-era concepts of favoring mercantilism and industrialization – practices that approach the natural world as something to be subdued and exploited. The authors propose a philosophy and jurisprudence that is deeply radical – upending centuries of Western tradition and culture – but possibly crucial to solving looming environmental problems. If there is a flaw in their book, it is perhaps their faith (expressed almost without doubt) that there exists a reasonable possibility of the world jettisoning global capitalism in order to 'decentralize power to small scale communities in tune with the laws of ecology.' Simply reading about Capra and Mattei’s vision is a paradigm-changing experience. Realizing it would require a seemingly impossible, but perhaps crucial, global transformation.” - Publishers Weekly “Confronting the systemic roots of our ecological crisis is far from easy, but there is a heartening side: we remember that the rules of our economic system are culturally constructed -- and that means they can change. This book is not only a dazzling map of the legal order underpinning capitalism, but also a visionary call to transform that system, reminding us that communities can and must drive the process of renewal and regeneration.” —Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine “Rules restrain but also enable. Law elevates this capacity onto a higher plane but succumbs to its dark side when shaped by vested interests extending cleverly their tyranny upon humanity and nature. Things do not have to be this way. As this book vividly explains law can be turned into an instrument for defending the planet and its inhabitants from the encroachments of financialized commodification.” —Yanis Varoufakis, former Minister of Finance of Greece " The Ecology of Law is a fast-paced, historical tour de force , placing the law in the various contexts that have shaped its utilization for good or ill. The contexts discussed by these bold thinkers - science and technology, the natural world, and the commons as a legal institution - provide fresh and functional perspectives on the evolution of law for the just society. For all those readers who think, wonder, and bridle at the law in their lives, this book is your tonic." —Ralph Nader “Fritjof Capra and Ugo Mattei fill a gap in our understanding of how the mechanistic paradigm that shaped a science for the exploitation and domination of nature was exported into law to ‘naturalize’ resource grab and the enclosures and privatization of the commons. F