Disasters and Responsibility:  Normative Issues for Law Following Disasters

Kristian Cedervall Lauta

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-92722-0_4

Disasters and Responsibility: Normative Issues for Law Following Disasters

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Major disasters are windows to societies’ deepest, darkest secrets. Moments, which allow us to sneak a peek at the categories according to which, we distribute wealth or justice and organize society as such. Law has come to play a vital role in this regard. In this chapter, I argue that (legal) conflicts after disaster are inevitable, as we have collectively changed our perception of what a disaster is. The modern disaster is anything but natural in its constitution; it is a deeply political, moral and cultural phenomenon. Accordingly, it is also legal. Furthermore, three overall features characterize the legal cases that arise out of disasters. They all deal with serious losses, complex causalities and tricky normative distinctions. While the first two play to the strengths of the legal order, the third is what make these cases controversial. Thus, in the process of solving the legal facts presented, courts face a number of questions of a non-legal nature. In order to perform its main function (to solve the conflict at hand) law is forced to engage with the most central questions we are confronted with in an Anthropocene world: which processes are driven by natural forces and which by culture, who is a citizen, and what belongs to sphere of scientific uncertainty or misconduct?.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Disasters : Core Concepts and Ethical Theories
Editors	Dónal P. O’Mathúna, Vilius Dranseika, Bert Gordijn
Number of pages	11
Publisher	Springer
Publication date	2018
Pages	43-53
ISBN (Print)	978-3-319-92721-3
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-319-92722-0
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92722-0_4
Publication status	Published - 2018

Series	Advancing Global Bioethics
Volume	11
ISSN	2212-652X

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10.1007/978-3-319-92722-0_4

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Disasters and Responsibility : Normative Issues for Law Following Disasters. / Lauta, Kristian Cedervall.

Disasters: Core Concepts and Ethical Theories. ed. / Dónal P. O’Mathúna; Vilius Dranseika; Bert Gordijn. Springer, 2018. p. 43-53 (Advancing Global Bioethics, Vol. 11).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review

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AB - Major disasters are windows to societies’ deepest, darkest secrets. Moments, which allow us to sneak a peek at the categories according to which, we distribute wealth or justice and organize society as such. Law has come to play a vital role in this regard. In this chapter, I argue that (legal) conflicts after disaster are inevitable, as we have collectively changed our perception of what a disaster is. The modern disaster is anything but natural in its constitution; it is a deeply political, moral and cultural phenomenon. Accordingly, it is also legal. Furthermore, three overall features characterize the legal cases that arise out of disasters. They all deal with serious losses, complex causalities and tricky normative distinctions. While the first two play to the strengths of the legal order, the third is what make these cases controversial. Thus, in the process of solving the legal facts presented, courts face a number of questions of a non-legal nature. In order to perform its main function (to solve the conflict at hand) law is forced to engage with the most central questions we are confronted with in an Anthropocene world: which processes are driven by natural forces and which by culture, who is a citizen, and what belongs to sphere of scientific uncertainty or misconduct?.

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Disasters and Responsibility: Normative Issues for Law Following Disasters

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