ABSTRACT
How to organize human society has always been a challenge throughout history and the law and ethics are two of its major organizers. The law is a system of tested norms and rules that regulate human behavior and deliver justice, equality, human rights and other values. Ethics explains how people behave and distinguishes between right and wrong. This chapter takes into account major current transitions that affect how the law and ethics will develop in the future, such as the move from Holocene to Anthropocene epoch, the urgency to address the various negative effects of the climate change and other major global challenges, the globalization and its various consequences and the technological advances and their impacts, some of which are indeed revolutionary. The chapter argues that ethics may evolve from being ego-centric in the past to become eco-centric in the future, whereas the law may evolve from being “hard” law, based on top-down imposition of rules and sanctions into becoming “soft” law, based on bottom-up nationally determined commitments, facilitated internationally.
