What is the relationship between law and capitalism - and what happens when their foundations collide with the climate crisis? In this groundbreaking work, A. Claire Cutler reveals how transnational corporations and the laws that shield them perpetuate environmental destruction while evading accountability. Developing a critical political economy analysis, Cutler traces the origins of corporate privilege in international law and shows how today's investment and value chain regimes reinforce this protected status, contrasting starkly with the precarious legal position of climate-displaced individuals. Challenging dominant theories that treat the crisis as abstract, Cutler argues for a transformative praxis of transnational law that confronts corporate responsibility head-on. In search of a utopian possibility for a better world order, this book examines the contradictions at the heart of law and capitalism and asks whether a just, sustainable future is still possible.

‘A. Claire Cutler has provided a compelling account of how we must challenge the primacy of transnational capitalism in theoretical terms if we are to chart a course of redemption, which will be difficult but not impossible. It is a masterly statement from a distinguished scholar that will advance scholarship in multiple disciplines.’

Randall Germain - Professor, Department of Political Science, Carleton University

‘What is the role of law in the ongoing global devastation of planetary resources? Cutler's significant work on law's political economy in the anthropocene expands her previous insights into the neoliberal metamorphosis of private law (corporation, contract, investment, value chains, labour relations) to encompass private international law, a crucial perspective as law reaches its ultimate frontier concomitantly with capital's latest—or last— crisis.’

Horatia Muir Watt - Professor, SciencesPo

‘A. Claire Cutler has long offered pathbreaking insights into the critical political economy of international law. This superbly written book extends that legacy, illuminating how legal framings of corporate power in global capitalism shape—and exacerbate—climate change.’

Susanne Soederberg - Canada Research Chair in Just and Inclusive Cities, Queen’s University, Canada

‘Professor Cutler’s compelling analysis shows how the climate crisis and any response to it unfold in a starkly skewed, asymmetric transnational political economy. The ‘market’, characterized far too long as either ‘natural’ or ‘unpolitical’, is the—legally constituted—space in which powerful private actors have absorbed key regulatory functions. Cutler’s timely proposal of a praxis conception of law bears the promise of realizing law’s transformative potential as part of a democratic challenge to the allegedly ‘normal’ status quo.’

Peer Zumbansen - Elizabeth Carmichael Monk Chair in Business Law, McGill University