This chapter reviews the ontology and epistemology of “crisis” in social theory, showing that crises are generally formulated as situations recognized as demanding immediate intervention and positive and effective responses. It reviews crisis theory in international relations and international law and shows that in both fields dominant problem-solving theories have normalized environmental crises and failed to generate definitive intervention and positive, effective actions. A significant reason for this failure lies in dominant ontologies and epistemologies that are resistant to framing the business corporation and capitalism as part of both the problem and the solution. Consequently, both disciplines are experiencing legitimacy crises because their dominant theories and practices address the environmental crisis at the level of discourse and fail to address the fundamental contradictions and antinomies in transnational capitalism that are giving rise to the crisis in the first place.