Resumen de Per un’ecologia realista. Un dialogo ecologico con Danilo Zolo
This essay retraces some of Danilo Zolo’s reflections from which I propose to develop a realistic approach to ecological issues. The theoretical tools developed by Zolo, especially his reflection on the form of legal structures and political relations, constitute a toolbox for reading ecological issues. Furthermore, Zolo’s analyses concerning specifically global problems are fundamental for a reflection on ecological issues that wants to escape the double failure of formulating neo-natural law proposals or of leaving the field to technical-economic expertise. The themes of legal realism, political realism and the theory of international order are the macro-categories around which the reflections I present here are organized, and which constitute the development of an “ecological dialogue” which began in conversations with Danilo Zolo. Some of Zolo’s reflections, in particular, are indicated as good starting points for proposing a realistic approach to ecological issues: the status to be attributed to scientific knowledge and its role with respect to law; how can norms relate to nature and regulate behaviors concerning the environment; if and how can the democratic form respond to the challenges of ecology; how can the international order intervene in issues that have an intrinsically global dimension, such as climate change.
