Trickster Law: Dealing with Climate Change Adaptation Despite Limited Agency

Robin Kundis Craig (Professor, Law)

THU FEB 4, 7:00 pm

Hall Center Conference Hall (and online via Crowdcast)

Climate change adaptation is one of the most difficult issues facing U.S. law and governance today. In part, these difficulties derive from the multiplicity of climate change impacts occurring at multiple scales—global, national, regional, local. In part, however, the difficulties reflect the outdated models of ecological change that are embedded within the laws themselves—models that assume that ecological equilibrium is the norm and that humans are in control.

This talk examines these outdated models of change and the U.S. cultural narratives within which they operate to illustrate how much law and other governance mechanisms are ill-equipped to deal with climate change adaptation, drawing examples from water law and the ocean. It them argues for a new approach to governance called trickster law--a middle path that acknowledges the continuing role of human agency in shaping paths for social-ecological systems while simultaneously admitting that the fates of these complex adaptative systems are not subject to complete human control.

Robin Kundis Craig is the Robert A. Schroeder Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Kansas, specializing in water law, ocean and coastal governance, and the intersection of climate change and environmental policy. She is the author, co-author, or editor of 12 books and more than 100 law review articles and book chapters. In 2017, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded her a Bellagio Center Writing Residency fellowship to work on her book, Re-Envisioning the Anthropocene Ocean.