Environmental law and policy

Environmental law and policy examines how legal systems regulate human relationships with the natural world, from national statutes on pollution and land use to international treaties governing shared resources and the global climate. A growing edge of the field asks whether nature itself—rivers, forests, ecosystems—can hold legal rights and standing in court, a question that has already produced landmark rulings in Ecuador, New Zealand, and Colombia. Researchers are also tracing how climate change litigation is reshaping corporate and state accountability, and how frameworks like the Aarhus Convention expand public access to environmental justice across borders. Central unresolved questions include how far legal personhood for natural entities can practically extend, and how international law can bind transnational corporations to enforceable environmental and human rights obligations.

Works

53,589

Total citations

130,893

Keywords

Rights of NatureEnvironmental LawClimate Change LitigationAarhus ConventionLegal PersonhoodHuman Rights