‘One Vast Gasoline Station for Human Exploitation’

Prost, Mario

Abstract

This chapter revisits the history of one of international law's foundational concepts – sovereignty – and examines its deep anthropocentric structure. It shows that, from the sixteenth century onwards, the transformation and subjection of nature's forces by man have been posited as a primordial and constitutive act of sovereignty and that, as a result, sovereignty has been denied to (primarily non-European) societies deemed to be failing in their duty to tame the natural world to enable human development. In other words, the exploitation of nature is not merely a legally protected attribute but, in more ways than one, a core requisite of sovereignty. International law is thus anthropocentric in a more profound and radical way than is usually acknowledged: It does not merely enable or facilitate the exploitation of nature but in fact demands it.

Citation

Prost, M. (2023). ‘One Vast Gasoline Station for Human Exploitation’. In The Routledge Handbook of International Law and Anthropocentrism (13-34). (1). Taylor & Francis (Routledge). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003201120-3

• Online Publication Date: Jun 15, 2023
• Publication Date: May 11, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 10, 2024
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Pages: 13-34
• Edition: 1
• Book Title: The Routledge Handbook of International Law and Anthropocentrism
• Chapter Number: 1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003201120-3
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/848414
• Publisher URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003201120-3/one-vast-gasoline-station-human-exploitation-mario-prost?context=ubx&refId=e0e49299-5f76-4b3f-acfe-0c115b35d6b7
• Related Public URLs: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003201120/routledge-handbook-international-law-anthropocentrism-vincent-chapaux-fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric-m%C3%A9gret-usha-natarajan?refId=340a063d-8b0d-4b9a-8a17-1a8ff719971f&context=ubx