Abstract

This paper is concerned with a critique of law that is seagoing: it unpacks notions such as a “seagoing pact,” the metaphor of the “cord” or the idea of “bringing the oceans to the court.” Touching on main questions in the field of the blue humanities, this paper makes a case for Michel Serres’s distinguished contribution through his philosophy of law, in which the sea plays a vital role both on a structural and metaphorical level. At the core of this analysis is the intersection between the model of fluidity and a concept of boundary, encompassing both natural and legal limitation. It aims to specify how Serres’s work on nautical metaphors and his philosophy of law come together via his topological approach, especially evident in The Birth of Physics, Rome, Geometry, The Natural Contract, Atlas, and Hominescence. Following his narrative, topologically conceived limits can be understood as inclusive and symbiotic, broadening an understanding of limits as merely exclusive and parasitical in nature. The expression “sound judgment” will be used to make sense of a philosophy of law which brings “listening” to an ethical-legal level and therefore combines environmental justice with sensibility.