The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Ana Maria Vargas Falla.

Ana Maria Vargas Falla

Director of first and second cycle studies

Ana Maria Vargas Falla.

The law of the four poles: legal pluralism and resistance in climate adaptation

Author

  • Ebba Brink
  • Ana Maria Vargas Falla
  • Emily Boyd

Summary, in English

Mounting climate-related floods, fires, droughts and storms across the globe raise crucial questions about the role of law in adjudicating rights and obligations. While climate litigation attracts scholarly attention, vulnerable populations often lack the means to use formal laws and courts. We draw on ethnographic interviews conducted in 2022 in the city of Cartagena, Colombia, to study how residents of informal settlements exposed to flooding resist exclusionary climate adaptation laws. The findings show how formal law has exacerbated differential climate vulnerability, and resulted in “seawalls for the rich, relocation (and stalled adaptation) for the poor.” In this context, residents claim land in risk-zones through a local rule system known as “the law of the four poles.” We argue that by challenging the legality of the state, and creating a rival legal order that better represents locally identified interests and entitlements, they are claiming a political voice in climate adaptation. We advance theory in both climate adaptation and sociology of law and discuss how the law can better reflect not only the science behind climate change but also the interest and needs of marginalized communities.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions
  • Department of Sociology of Law
  • Lund university sustainability forum
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2025

Language

English

Pages

1-32

Publication/Series

Law & Society Review

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Topic

  • Law

Status

Epub

Project

  • Everyday forms of resistance to state adaptation regulation: An ethnographic study of responses in informal settlements (RESIST)
  • Everyday forms of resistance to state adaptation regulation: An ethnographic study of responses in informal settlements

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1540-5893