Sovereignty in the Anthropocene

ABSTRACT This article is an edited version of a conversation animated by Daniel Matthews’ recent monograph Earthbound: The Aesthetics of Sovereignty in the Anthropocene. We discuss the impetus and context for the book, its contribution to an emergent literature on law and the Anthropocene, and its commentary on the continued relevance of humanistic approaches to law and politics. The conversation traverses a range of concerns raised by Earthbound, such as the politics of place, the nature of community, and the priority of obligations in the ‘age of rights’. Exploring Matthews’ rendering of the ‘aesthetic aspect’ of sovereignty, which contours contemporary approaches to our environmental predicament, we consider the limits and possibilities of the sovereign political form in the context of the climate and ecological crises, and discuss how the Anthropocene might challenge existing approaches to law and the humanities. The interview is preceded by a contextualisation of Matthews’ work within the intellectual reorientations and recalibrations prompted by the Anthropocene, and the broader provocation of the ‘inhumanities’.