The Earth on Trial examines the degree to which the law has accommodated an increasing understanding of the natural environment. Paul Kibel provides a clear assessment of the conceptual and practical changes needed to reconcile law to the limits of ecology. Kibel discusses many international environmental issues including Canadian logging and international law, the legacy of environmental law after the collapse of the USSR, the poison gas leak in Bhopa, India, the refoliation of Vietnam's forests since the war and marine turtle protection. The book acknowledges that a healthy environmental future depends not so much on our ability to alter nature to accommodate society, but on our ability to alter society to accommodate nature.