On the basis of my work in three projects (co-chairing UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook-6, co-chairing Future Earth’s Earth Commission, and my Advanced Grant on Climate Change and Fossil Fuels), I have three critical messages with respect to environmental justice and law. My perspective on sustainability is influenced by my understanding that we are [...]
The concept of sustainability, or sustainable development, articulated in the 1987 Brundtland Report has, since the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, legitimated what Steven Bernside calls the ‘compromise of liberal environmentalism’.[1] This normative paradigm treats environmental protection as compatible with, and often premised upon, the continuation of economic growth, the promotion [...]
In these two blogs, Julia Dehm and Joyeeta Gupta engage the questions of sustainability and environmental justice in contemporary global legal governance. In their blogs we see a common concern with the dominant position of private interest-oriented fields of law. For Dehm, the notion of ‘sustainability’ is situated in the double position of [...]
What might a ‘Sustainable Global Economic Law’ (SGEL) look like, in a context of accelerating ecological degradation, wild levels of inequality and wealth concentration, continuous technological disruption and strong demands for environmental and social justice? This ambitious question was at the heart of the two-day conference convened at the University of Amsterdam Law [...]
In its Circular Strategy 2020-2025, Amsterdam relies on the Amsterdam City Doughnut developed by the British economist Kate Raworth. The model depicts an economy where societies and businesses contribute to economic development while respecting the limits of the planet. The Doughnut provides a playful approach to framing humanity’s challenge of the 21st century: [...]
The recent use of the Lender Liability regime in Brazil by public prosecution can bring fresh ideas for Dutch lawmakers who want tighter controls over investment in socio-environmentally sensible activities. Public prosecutors use this figure to hold entities providing financial support to socio-environmentally harmful activities co-responsible for such damages, while also imposing broad [...]
The 26th of May 2021, the Court of First Instance of The Hague rendered a ground-breaking judgment in a climate case against the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell (RDS).[2] The Court ruled that RDS has an independent obligation to do its share against dangerous climate change. The legal basis of the judgment is international [...]