Beyond Fossil Law

CLIMATE, COURTS, AND THE FIGHT FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE


TED HAMILTON


“This is not just a page-turner legal thriller, it's a sweeping account of how the legal system enables the ongoing destruction of the planet. It provides a detailed, actionable understanding of why we find ourselves so deep in the hole, and how we might dig ourselves out.” —Bill McKibben


Buy This Book


Paperback:
$20/£15

add to cart
E-book:
$10/£7

add to cart
Print + E-book:
$24/£18

add to cart

FAQs and shipping information

About the Book

Beyond Fossil Law: Climate, Courts, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future answers a pressing question for the future of the planet: why is it legal for companies to pump dangerous gases into the atmosphere but illegal for regular people to stop them? Reviewing the current state of “fossil law”—the rules and regulations that allow the disruption of the global climate system—the book explains how financial interest, colonial power, and outmoded legal ideas block efforts to prevent global warming. Moving from a historical account of the origins of fossil law to ongoing battles to criminalize climate activism, the book reveals how courts, prosecutors, and police enforce the dominance of the fossil fuel industry.

But people are fighting back. Beyond Fossil Law tells the story of the Valve Turners, a group of climate activists who successfully stopped the flow of tar-sands oil to the United States in 2016. Their courtroom battles to justify an act of civil disobedience were a major step forward in crafting a new, democratic law of climate justice. Ted Hamilton examines similar efforts to dismantle fossil law, from the rights of nature movement in Latin America to groundbreaking lawsuits against governments in the United States and Europe. He shows how climate legal activism is closely linked to grassroots campaigns against government and industry abuse, and offers strategies for crafting a new law of climate justice.

240 pages • Paperback ISBN 978-1-68219-325-9 • E-book 978-1-68219-322-8

About the Author

Read an Excerpt

In the Media

Verified by MonsterInsights