People For Earth

Does nature have legal rights as well as humans?
How do trees, dolphins, forests, and rivers become legal and political entities?
Is it possible to establish a new political system and governance involving flora, fauna, and nature's participation?
As the inaugural book of the series "People for Earth" jointly presented by People for Earth and Moonji Publishers, this compilation edited by sociologist Wang-bae Kim delves into ten essays discussing the alternative system of 'Earth Jurisprudence,' encompassing both human and non-human entities. These essays explore Earth Jurisprudence through various academic lenses including constitutional law, legal philosophy, political science, sociology, and political ecology. The book provides an overview of the relatively unfamiliar philosophical aspects of Earth Jurisprudence, examining multiple facets of Korean society that call for an Earth Jurisprudence perspective. Furthermore, it ventures further by encompassing social scientific imagination that restructures society ecologically, presenting concepts such as biocracy, a political system where non-human life participates in politics, and commons as an alternative to the property rights system, wherein all members of the human community equally care for shared resources.

“Earth Jurisprudence and Korean Society: A New Page” is a transcription of the People for Earth’s 6th Anniversary Conference 2021. This book introduces topics related to Earth Jurisprudence, a global philosophy and world view that pursues the coexistence of the earth and humans, a great discourse for the transition to an ecological civilization.
What is the significance of Earth Jurisprudence in Korean society? This book is about the recognition and solutions that Korean society needs in order to harmonize with the earth. Coming of the Anthropocene and concerns about non-human actors, a new social naturalism is sought through political ecology and a new perspective beyond humans. Possibilities of alternative social theories are explored in new social, political, and ecological conditions that are no longer captured by the binary approach of society and nature, human and non-human, subject and object.
The book, published by People for Earth, contains presentations and discussions by Kim Wang-bae, Kim Seong-hwan, Kim Hong-Gee, Hyun Ziyea, Song Kiwon, Choi Jeong-won, Park Taehyun, Oh Dongsuk, Choi Jeongho, Choe Seonho, Kim Do-kyun, and Jeong Hyejin, who participated as presenters and panelists at the People for Earth’s 6th Anniversary Conference 2021.

Kumsil Kang, Chairperson of the Board, published "Earth Community, Earth Law," that presents a guideline for paradigm shift, and summarizes the core elements of ecological worldview and global governance. Looking back on the history of industrial civilization, we looked at the global issues we faced, and summarized future-oriented values and fundamental philosophy clearly to see what is urgently needed to create a sustainable global community. In particular, Earth jurisprudence, which gives nature the right of a legal subject, provides an order of coexistence in a living community. Now that the search for change such as sustainable development, carbon neutrality, ESG management, and Green New Deal policies is active, will become a new momentum in the path towards the paradigm shift.

"The governance of new ecozoic era should be designed based on earthcentrism, and the philosophical principle for this is Earth Jurisprudence."
This book 'Earth Jurisprudence' is an introductory document on earth centric law jointly written by experts who have been active in the People for Earth to use it as basic textbooks. Earth Jurisprudence is based on new facts learned by the development of science, the continuity and integrity of planet Earth life formed through modern cosmology and evolutionary processes. It is a new attempt to reconstruct the principles of the legal system by accepting modern science. The modern legal system, in which only humans are set as subjects and all other beings are treated as objects, was formed under the influence of the mechanical worldview of the 17th century, which has already been overcome in science, and should now be avoided.

Professor Taehyun Park & lawyer Youngjun Kim, the members of Academic Society on Earth Jurisprudence in People for Earth translated & published 'The Ecology of Law'. This book seeks the possibility of legal order for new ecological civilization, as shown in the subtitle 'Toward a Legal System in Tune with Nature and Community.' The authors emphasized the ecological transition from the modern mechanical worldview under the awareness of the problem that "human civilization can disappear from Earth without changing the exploitative and destructive behavior.“

“Ten Ideas for Saving the Planet” is a collection of John B. Cobb Jr’s unpublished articles that was selected and translated into Korean by Dr. Yunjeong Han, the Center for Process Studies in Claremont, California. Born in 1925, Cobb’s dedication to the ecological civilization movement for nearly 50 years has inspired many people around the world. He sees the Earth has already deteriorated to such an extent that it can’t be reversed which results in the inevitable collapse of human civilization. He eagerly appeals for the drastic change to stop or at least slow down this crisis. In the book Cobb's ecological reasoning across diverse disciplines (philosophy, theology, ethics, pedagogy, economics, physics, biology, agricultural science and urban engineering) is well documented in ten propositions. The book was published by People for Earth, an ecological civilization group based in Seoul, South Korea, in October 2018.

Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice is the first translation project by People For Earth Forum and it was published on April 22, (Earth Day) 2016 by Rhodos Books.
The author proposes recognizing natural communities and ecosystems as legal persons with legal rights. The book explains the concept of wild law, that is, human laws that are consistent with earth jurisprudence. Foreworded by Thomas Berry, the book was published by Green Books in November 2003 in association with The Gaia Foundation, London. It was first published in South Africa, the author's home country, in August 2002 and was translated into Korean by Professor Taehyun Park, the director of Academic Society for Earth Jurisprudence.