From Domination to Care: A Moral-Legal Framework for Sustainable Environmental Development

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Private law department, Law Faculty, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran . Iran

2 Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences, Environmental Pollution, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Prevailing theories and development policies have historically framed nature primarily as a resource or instrument for fulfilling human needs. This orientation—even within the discourse of sustainable development—often sustains an anthropocentric and extractive relationship with the natural world. Drawing on the framework of care ethics, this article reconsiders the human–nature relationship by conceptualizing the Earth as an “other.” In this reframing, nature is understood not as a mere object or commodity, but as a moral entity—vulnerable, intrinsically valuable, and deserving of attentive care. Such an ethical shift has significant implications for legal and customary approaches to environmental responsibility. It redefines the foundation of liability, moving from reaction to actual harm toward proactive care and the prevention of conditions likely to produce future harm. Sustainable development, in this view, necessitates an ethical reorientation that privileges care, mutual interdependence, and moral attentiveness over purely utilitarian or instrumental considerations. Employing a descriptive–analytical methodology and drawing on extensive library‑based research, this study explores the theoretical underpinnings of this care‑centered perspective, as well as its broader environmental, legal, and societal implications.

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References

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Green Development Management Studies
Volume 4, Special Issue
November 2025
Pages 252-262

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History

  • Receive Date: 23 September 2025
  • Revise Date: 14 October 2025
  • Accept Date: 18 November 2025

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