This essay introduces the legal dimensions of the Anthropocene, i.e. the currently advocated new geological epoch in which humans are the defining force. It explores in this context two basic propositions. First, law as a technology of social organisation has been neglected in the otherwise highly technology-focused accounts by natural and social scientists of the drivers of the Anthropocene. Secondly, in those rare instances where law has been discussed, there is a tendency to assume that the role of law is to tackle the negative externalities of transactions (e.g. their environmental or social implications) rather than the core of the underlying transactions, i.e. the organisation of production and consumption processes. Such focus on externalities fails to unveil the role of law in prompting, sustaining and potentially managing the processes that have led to the Anthropocene. The essay provides an extensive survey of the relevant literature from a range of disciplines. After a brief introduction to the Anthropocene narrative and the possible role of law in it, it focuses on three main questions identified in humanities, social and natural sciences, and then discusses their legal dimensions: the disconnection between natural and human history, the profound inequalities within the human variable driving the Anthropocene, and the technological transition required to reach a sustainable societal organisation. The essay concludes with a concise research agenda linking specific legal questions to the broader questions raised by the advent of the Anthropocene.