Environmental law and policy

Environmental law and policy examines how legal systems define, distribute, and enforce obligations to protect the natural world, from domestic regulations to international treaties like the Aarhus Convention, which guarantees public access to environmental justice. A growing edge of this work asks whether nature itself can hold legal rights—courts in several countries have begun granting rivers and ecosystems the status of legal persons, a move that reshapes who can sue on behalf of a damaged environment and on what grounds. Climate change litigation is accelerating these debates, as plaintiffs increasingly invoke human rights frameworks to hold both governments and transnational corporations accountable for emissions and ecological harm. Open questions include how far constitutional protections can extend to nonhuman entities, and whether international law can develop enforcement mechanisms robust enough to match the scale of the environmental crisis.

Works

50,772

Total citations

127,900

Keywords

Rights of NatureEnvironmental LawClimate Change LitigationAarhus ConventionLegal PersonhoodHuman Rights