Ecological restoration is increasingly recognized as essential for combating the biodiversity and climate crises. However, restoration activities can also produce or exacerbate social and environmental injustices. This article explores the extent to which the European Union’s 2024 Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) enables ‘just ecological restoration’. Drawing on the three dimensions of environ…
The emergence of remotely operated vessels introduces new players, such as remote operators, into the shipping industry. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is working to incorporate these concepts into its regulatory framework. Given the significant responsibilities expected of remote operators, their liability for oil pollution and their role in marine environment protection require c…
This article examines how the identification and assessment (I&A) of adverse environmental impacts (AEI) within corporate value-chain due diligence (VCDD) norms under the Guidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is normatively designed, and how it can be distinguished from similar legal requirements that already bind corporations to perform environmental imp…
Policymakers often cite a need to balance, or trade off, the protection and restoration of the natural environment on the one hand, and the extractive use of the environment for economic reasons on the other. This tension is inherent in the goal of ‘sustainable development’, which, despite providing a conceptual basis for Western environmental and conservation law, has also been criticized for le…
This article argues that an emerging body of ‘target laws’ – legislation that incorporates binding, quantified environmental targets with specified deadlines – represents a crucial evolution in environmental governance. Whereas traditional environmental risk regulation was valuable for managing discrete environmental impacts, it has proven inadequate to address systemic challenges like climate br…
This article examines the hybrid network structure of the global sustainability governance system, focusing on the evolving relationships between private transnational regulators (PTRs) and intergovernmental organizations (IOs). We argue that a defining feature of this structure is the mutual dependence between PTRs and IOs: PTRs invoke public international law instruments (PILIs) – and, by exten…
States have agreed to pursue ambitious environmental goals such as limiting the rise in global average temperature, halting the loss of biodiversity, protecting the oceans, curbing land degradation, and preventing pollution. In implementing these common objectives, some states take measures that have extraterritorial effects. These impacts sometimes lead to criticism from affected countries, whic…
The World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the Pandemic Agreement in May 2025. The contentious Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system was incorporated as an Annex, to be negotiated at a later date. Access and benefit-sharing (ABS) was introduced into international environmental law to make access to genetic resources conditional on, or ‘linked’ to, the sharing of benefits associated w…
The European Union (EU) is implementing unilateral trade restrictions on imports that contain residues of pesticides banned for use within its borders. Several Latin American (LA) countries, among other EU trading partners, have criticized these measures, leading to a contentious debate that could escalate into a trade dispute before the World Trade Organization (WTO). This article aims to unpack…
Fossil fuel companies no longer deny anthropogenic climate change in litigation, but they challenge the validity of climate science in establishing legal responsibility. Research on climate litigation, social movements, and legal mobilization has focused primarily on plaintiffs’ perspectives, showing how they use the judicial process as a site of knowledge production. This article shifts the focu…
In the 1990s, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) emerged as the primary international forum for managing the interface between biodiversity and biotechnology. Three legally binding protocols to the Convention were concluded, all aiming to regulate bio-innovation. Despite the rapid pace of biotechnological innovation, however, and its implications for biodiversity and equity, CBD policy …
In this article, I study non-material harm in cases of environmental liability. Environmental tragedy does not only come at great economic cost but often also brings about non-material loss – that is, loss that has no market value. In order to better recognize, assess, and measure this type of harm, more insight is needed into its psychological conception and parameters. Departing from the availa…
Light pollution – the use of artificial lighting at night (ALAN) – is a growing environmental problem. This article focuses on how the European Union (EU) governs light pollution. A few key points are made. At first glance, the regulatory situation appears to be straightforward: there is no explicit EU governance in this area, as no regulation has been adopted with specific targets to mitigate li…
This article is about state responsibility and its unique interaction with environmental law. While remedies in the main are reparative in nature, the ‘guarantees of non-repetition’ are qualitatively distinct, intended to prevent recurrence of a breach and, as such, this remedy brings added value to environmental law. Utilizing the Montara oil spill as a conceptual testing ground, this article ar…
The regulation of groundwater remains underdeveloped globally and often lags behind the domestic governance of surface water. As a result, groundwater is often subject to unfettered extraction, uses, and contamination. A clear understanding of ownership is central to the success of domestic regulations. However, the types of ownership regime in place in nations around the world are poorly documen…
In alignment with the vision for the future of the European Union (EU) put forth by the European Green Deal in 2020, and EU efforts to tackle global deforestation and forest degradation, the EU Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR) was adopted in June 2023. The EUDR is designed specifically as a unilateral, yet transnational, intervention to limit access to the EU market or the exports fr…
