The Children's Hour: Climate Change, Law, and the Family

Abstract

U.S. family law has historically been regarded as “exceptional,” or insulated from the geopolitical forces that shape laws governing public life. Climate change, however, is putting new and terrible pressures on families and family law—the earth may be verging on the uninhabitable by the time a child born today comes of age. While U.S. family law is presently organized around ensuring “stability” for children, the family law of the future must follow the lead of kinship innovators finding creative and sustainable ways to respond to the instability introduced by climate change.

Keywords: Climate change, family law, sustainability, family, kinship, environmentalism, feminism, urbanism, reproductive justice, environmental justice