ABSTRACT
Legal systems are complex adaptive systems that interact with other natural and socially constructed complex adaptive systems in the global panarchy across multiple temporal and spatial scales. Contemporary law emerged from a long historical evolution of these interactions to support worldviews hardened around insistence on economic growth, strong state sovereignty and strong private property rights. Understanding law through the lens of complex adaptive systems may yield ecological law that is more responsive to and coherent with processes of global environmental change. Extending complexity theory from natural ecosystems to social constructs such as legal systems requires inclusion of human intentionality, which is a key to transformation. With a systems-based approach, legal systems must become more explicitly flexible and adaptive, taking a precautionary approach with respect to ecological limits.
