Biodiversity Litigation

Biodiversity is in accelerated decline and urgent action is needed. In 2020, the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity ended, and none of its Aichi Targets were met. Despite the legally disappointing situation on a global level, the role of national courts in adjudicating climate change litigation is showing potential for effective mitigation and adaptation, and judges have become key actors in linking internationally agreed goals with tangible national commitments to mitigate climate change. Can this pursuit of globally agreed goals at a local level be transposed and lead a similar trend for biodiversity governance?

This edited collection gives readers an overview of the shape and reach of biodiversity litigation, drawing on specific case studies from countries such as Brazil, China, India and Canada. It considers two questions: Firstly, what is the influence of international biodiversity law on biodiversity litigation? Secondly, what are the trends of biodiversity litigation? Leading experts discuss these questions from the perspective of developing, developed and mega bio-diverse countries, promoting the concept of biodiversity litigation as a common notion of environmental law, and arguing for more creative legal thinking when dealing with and analysing biodiversity-related disputes.

About the Author:
Guillaume Futhazar, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Sandrine Maljean-Dubois, Senior Researcher, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Jona Razzaque, Professor of Environmental Law, University of the West of England

Guillaume Futhazar is a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg, Germany). His research focuses mainly on international biodiversity law and, within that field, the relationship between law and science and the evolutions of normative trends. He is currently based in La Réunion (France), where he advises the Centre Sécurité Requin on environmental related matters and risk management.

Sandrine Maljean Dubois is a senior researcher at the CNRS. She teaches international and European environmental law at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Aix-Marseille University (France). Her research focus is on international environmental law, in particular on biodiversity and climate change law. She is the author of several books and numerous articles on these topics. She serves as a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.

Jona Razzaque is a professor of environmental law at Bristol Law School, University of the West of England, and a barrister. Her research focuses on environmental law in the Global South, natural resource governance and environmental justice. She acted as a coordinating lead author of the IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2019). She is a member of the advisory board of the Journal of Environmental Law and serves as a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. She has published extensively on participatory rights, biodiversity conservation, nature protection law, ecosystem services, water management, and forest conservation.