Dominium.

• Author: Godin, Robert
• Position: Special Section: McGill Companion to Law

The declining situation of planet Earth is, by all indications, becoming profound and far reaching in its many manifestations. One of the more obvious causes of this decline is climate change that is already affecting fundamental life-giving and life-sustaining components of the biosphere. The scientific evidence of the rapid degradation of the earth's ecosystems, as a direct consequence of human activity, is overwhelming. Science tells us that humanity is engaged in the process of rapidly and permanently damaging the earth's life-supporting systems.

Because of the dominant role that humanity is playing in the present epoch, which is being named the Anthropocene, it becomes imperative to reconsider the Human-Earth relationship. More particularly, we must consider the concepts of property, ownership, and dominium, where property is seen as "an institution for allocating resources and distributing wealth and power" according to Dukeminier and Krier--a view which is having a direct impact on already strained global ecological limits.

Book One of Genesis (King James Version) has historically provided a convenient principle:

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. According to this story, humanity was placed in an intermediary position between God and Nature. God gave humanity ownership of the planet, which traditionally has included "the right to use, enjoy and dispose" thereof "fully and freely." As this principle evolved over the centuries, humanity has considered itself at the center of the universe and entitled to an unlimited right of appropriation. Even though we have clearly moved away from this oversimplified view, recognizing the fact that there are significant restrictions to the exercise of an "absolute" right, large portions of the inhabitants of this planet are still quite convinced that, ultimately, the earth belongs to humanity, for its exclusive use and enjoyment. For example, the commitment to perpetual economic growth is still the prevailing force driving humanity's use of planetary resources without adequate reference to the depletion and pollution of Earth's life...