The history and process of changing the law exhibits many of the features of interconnected fitness landscapes. Beckstrom, Sociobiology and the Law: The Biology of Altruism in the Court of the Future (U. of Illinois, 1985).
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Therefore, in describing the evolution of fitness model, I use the development of environmental law to exemplify the explanatory power of the Complexity Theory paradigm for the sociolegal system. However, throughout time, the rest of the socio-legal system has evolved partly in response to the transformation of environmental law, and in turn has caused the landscape of environmental law to change as well.
Part III of this Article then offers several observations for the practical operation of democracy which appear to emerge from the
- EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AND THE SEDUCTION OF LEGAL THEORY-FROM DARWIN TO THE ECOSYSTEM AGE IN SCIENCE AND LAW
- Natural Selection and Gradualism-Foundations for Legal Formalism
- Punctuated Equilibriums-Legal Realism Challenges Social Darwinism
- Random Drift Through Species Selection-A Role for Indeterminacy in Law?
They were created by thinkers who were generally satisfied with the state of the law as it was." Stein, Legal Evolution at 122 (cited in note 15). See also Ruse, Darwinism, in Keller and Lloyd, eds., Keywords at 78 (cited in note 1) ("Darwin . . . believed fervently that selection operates exclusively to benefit the individual.").
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Ecosystem Nonequilibrium-Recognizing Dynamical Legal Systems
For example, the lion is the king of the jungle, but if you put one in Antarctica, the penguins will eat it for lunch. In Darwin's theory, the actions of environmental forces on individuals are the drivers of natural selection.117 The emergence in environmental biology of the concept of. Many modern biologists credit Darwin with helping establish the science of ecology through his recognition that a 'web of complex relationships' connects all living things in any region." Weiner, The Beak of the Finch, 225 (quoted in note 11).
Even when we have a catalog of the activities of most of the participating species, we are far from understanding the effect of changes in the ecosystem." Holland, Hidden Order at 3 (cited in note 5). For example, in ecosystems around the world , lacking true woodpeckers, such as some recently (in geologic time) formed islands, adaptive radiations from the bird species that originally colonized the ecosystems have led to the evolutionary convergence of various new species toward the woodpecker niche.Rodgers, The Lesson of the Owl and the Crows : The Role of Deception in the Evolution of Environmental Statutes, 4 J .
CHANGE IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ECOSYSTEM
Complex Adaptive Systems and Their Surprises-Order and Indeterminacy in Environmental Law
One of the objectives of Complexity Theory is therefore 'to get a grip on the limits of reductionism as a universal problem-solving approach'. ID card. The absence of such adaptive forces in simple systems 'threatens their ability to absorb shocks'. ID card. By showing that deterministic rules can lead to arbitrary behavior, Complexity Theory "destroys the age-old myth of predictability and [time-symmetric] determinism."
Adaptation allows the system to "restructure or at least change the pattern of interaction." Casti, Complexification at 271 (cited in note 5). Goodwin, How the Leopard Changed Its Spots at 183 (cited in note 5) ("In this semi-ordered regime, the system is dynamic and changeable, neither chaotic nor 'frozen,' but rich in patterns of activity that extend across space, in which [the system] operates."). For example, Professor Rodgers has written extensively about what he calls statutory "sleepers (provisions with consequences not foreseen at the time of enactment)" which he argues "have played an important role in the history of environmental law." Rodgers, Environmental Law § 1.3 at 43 (cited in note 157).
Schemata, Conflicting Constraints, and the Peaks and Valleys of Fitness Landscapes-The Evolving Fitness of Common Law in
This is, of course, a question about the mechanics of the evolution of the socio-legal system. Two factors suggest that a species' fitness level will change in direction and amplitude with behavioral and structural changes in the organism. First, each organism must construct a schema of its environment, which includes a description of the other species in the organism's environment and how they are likely to respond to the organism's various forms of behavior.
In short, the contribution to overall fitness of the organism from one state of one trait may depend in very complex ways on the states of many other traits. For example, most environmental regulatory laws contain statements of findings, goals, purposes, and policies that help guide the implementation of the law's structural provisions. Courts often use those schemata to decide how the law is supposed to behave in the socio-legal system.
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Niches, Correlated Landscapes, Peak Jumping, and Gateway Events-Environmental Law's Rapid Transition From Common Law
For a discussion of the role of accidents in the evolutionary history of the biota of the Hawaiian Islands, see Wilson, Diversity of Life at 94-100 (cited in note 11). Starting at the small level and working up, it seems clear that "the space of possible molecules is larger than the number of atoms in the universe. If this is true, it is clear that the actual molecules in the biosphere are a small fraction of the space of the possible.
So the molecules we see are to some extent the results of historical accidents in the history of life." Kauffman, At Home in the Universe at 186 (cited in note 5). In the landscape model we see that punctuation equilibria can occur without contradicting any premise of natural selection in the neo-Darwinian model.20' That something more came in the form of a leap that brought environmental law into the realm of federal command-and-control law.
Competition, Cooperation, and Coevolution Towards the Edge of Chaos-Long-Jumping Beyond the Regulatory State to New
- THE PRACTICAL MEANING OF EVOLUTIONARY FITNESS FOR AN OPERATING DEMOCRACY-DESIGNING SOCIOLEGAL
It will yield when both varieties develop in new directions: when they diverge." Weiner, The Beak of the Finch at 142 (cited in note 11). Ecosystems are an example, see Weiner, The Beak of the Finch Finch at 200 -02 (cited in note 11), another could be “when individuals and firms in an economy operate under a government that regulates their behavior to promote values important to the community as a whole.” Gell-Mann, Kvark, and Jaguar at 242 (cited in note 5). The resilience of entire ecosystems is tested by severe disturbances, such as the introduction of new species that disrupt the ecosystem's "fit," otherwise known as "exotic introductions" or "bioinvasions."
The rest of the socio-legal system did not simply stand still as the organism of environmental regulation grew to leviathan proportions. For a current and comprehensive overview of the efforts of reform proposals on these fronts, see Robert L. Is the Long Leap of Ratios That Transformed Nuisance Law into a Regulatory State Now OK for a Regulatory State?
ECOSYSTEMS THAT LAST
The Common Law, the Constitution, and the Joy of Sex in Democracy
I think they lead inexorably to the conclusion that the common law and the Constitution, when fused as they were in the United States, created a socio-legal system that allowed unusually high levels of system-wide fitness. 34;analogy between pure Chaos Theory and the common law."252 For example, case outcomes are generated by the application of relatively simple legal principles to a given set of facts and yet are unpredictable. Common law therefore appears to be a decision. after justification rather than decision by rule.
Based on this premise, he posits that legislation can take revolutionary turns and the common law cannot. Using this premise, he argues that legislation is a more appropriate system and evolutionary theories of legal change suffer from the common law's defects in this regard. Thus, the common law and the Constitution combine to form a socio-legal ecosystem - a system of rules - which is extremely adaptive.
The Contraceptive Effects of the Federal Administrative State Based on Complexity Theory, I have identified the two key
Contraceptive effects of the federal administrative state, based on complexity theory, I have identified two key ones. He notes that "the actual text of the Commerce Clause has become so irrelevant that most courts that use it no longer bother to cite it." Id. For example: Congress left it up to the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency to define "wetlands" for purposes of implementing Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
Congress has left it to the Environmental Protection Agency to define many of the components of “solid waste” for purposes of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Because of the broad deference courts accord agencies in establishing these regulations, see Chevron U.S.A., Inc. Many opinion polls confirming this trend can be found in the POLL-C database of the electronic research service Westlaw.
While we can take comfort in the apparent predictability of this state, we will face an increasingly ominous threat of a major catastrophe.
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Today, for example, the states with the strongest economies are also the states with the strongest environmental protection programs, which runs counter to the premise of the federal environmental regulatory program.280. Forum 8 (Nov/Dec 1995) Many, if not most, of the best and most innovative ideas in environmental and natural resource protection come from the United States."); John Pendergrass, A Rich History of State Innovation, Environment To share their innovations and successes, the states recently formed the Environmental Council of the States (CECOS).
Keep in mind, however, that the overall record of the states in this area is mixed"). Presumably, these commentators expect us to agree that the record of the federal government is unblemished, or at least so much better than that of the states. that any talk of devolution as the course of evolution is folly.Likewise, the states, accustomed to being vassals of the federal government and competing with each other for the scraps of federal entitlement and grant programs, must relearn.
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CONCLUSION
All these united galaxies of thought have been waiting, perhaps, for the organizing principles that Complexity Theory can offer. The jury is still out on what Complexity Theory will bring to science, law, and society. Perhaps it offers nothing more than a new way of looking at familiar problems.293 However, if all Complexity Theory does is prompt us to ask questions about the socio-legal system with renewed vigor, without providing definitive answers instant, that's enough.
Horgan claims that complexity theory "will not achieve any great insights into nature, certainly none comparable to Darwin's theory of evolution or quantum mechanics. But he admits that complexity theory has "slightly expanded the boundaries of knowledge in some areas and sharply delineated the boundaries of knowledge elsewhere." Id. The fact that Horgan devotes an entire chapter of his dissertation on the current state of science in the world to complexity theory suggests that he is hedging his bets and that even he is leaving open the possibility of more from complexity theory.
