Featured speakers include Karenna Gore – Center for Earth Ethics, Natalia Greene – Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, Grant Wilson and Missy Lahren – Earth Law Center, and Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim – Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. In addition, co-founders of SOEL, Herman Greene, Linda Wendling, and others, will present their plans for this venture. Artist and Works on Water co-founder, Sarah Cameron Sunde, will discuss the multi-sited exhibition and series of public art interventions at the Arts Center, which were made on, in, and with bodies of water and created in response to the global climate crisis.
SOEL’s mission is to transform law for an ecological age. Frustrated by the legal system’s ongoing failure to address escalating climate and ecological crises, SOEL calls for a bold shift: legal frameworks that recognize Earth not as property or a storehouse of resources, but as a living, interconnected community. SOEL envisions a world where legal, economic, social, and political systems are rooted in a shared commitment to nurture, regenerate, and sustain the Earth community—locally, bioregionally, nationally, and globally.
“The legal system as we know it was built to serve power, profit, and property—not people, ecosystems, or future generations,” said Linda Wendling, Executive Director of SOEL. “We believe law must evolve to reflect the truth that everything is connected.”
The launch of SOEL comes at a time when communities worldwide are struggling to protect their lands, waters, and ways of life—often finding the law working against them. SOEL draws from a variety of cultural beliefs, social constructs, ecological science, and ethical philosophy to craft new ordering principles for society—laws, customs, ethics, stories, and frameworks of understanding—that align human systems with nature’s laws. Its three guiding principles are:
Relationality – Everything is connected.
Reciprocity – Nature gives; humans must give back and pay nature’s blessings forward.
Responsibility – Humans are accountable to all life.
“This isn’t about tweaking policy—it’s about a legal paradigm shift,” Wendling added. “Earth law reframes our responsibilities, not just our rights. It brings the legal system into alignment with ecological reality. And because Earth law is the work of everyone—not just lawyers—it invites people from every field to help shape a more life-affirming future.”
SOEL is collaborating with leading thinkers and organizations, including the Center for Ecozoic Studies, to build a movement that transforms law for an Ecozoic era—a time of promise when Earth is respected as our shared and sacred home across generations and species.
“As Thomas Berry taught, Earth is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects,” said Dr. Herman Greene, President of the Center for Ecozoic Studies. “SOEL is helping to build the momentum for that essential shift. It opens the door for law to become not just a system of rules that govern human conduct, but an expression of care, humility, and shared purpose with the living world.”
SOEL’s founders assert that the legal profession must confront its role in enabling systemic ecological harm—and rise to meet the demands of a world in crisis. Their goal is to foster a new generation of Earth lawyers, educators, scientists, and advocates who can support regenerative agriculture, bioregional governance, and the rights of nature—while helping communities challenge outdated systems that place economic growth above ecological justice and health for humans, other species, and future generations.
For additional information on SOEL, visit www.SocietyforEarthLaw.org or contact SOEL’s Executive Director, Linda Wendling, at linda@societyforearthlaw.org.
