“Human laws must be reformulated to keep human activities in harmony
with the unchanging and universal laws of nature.” h is 1987 statement
by the World Commission on Environment and Development has never
been more relevant and urgent than it is today. Despite the many legal
responses to various environmental problems, more greenhouse gases
than ever before are being released into the atmosphere, biological diversity
is rapidly declining and i sh stocks in the oceans are dwindling.
h is book challenges the doctrinal construction of environmental law
and presents an innovative legal approach to ecological sustainability: a
rule of law for nature that guides and transcends ordinary written laws
and extends fundamental principles of respect, integrity and legal security
to the non-human world.
CHRISTINA VOIGT is a Professor at the Department of Public and
International Law, University of Oslo, Norway, where she works in particular
on legal issues of climate change, sustainability and the interface
between environmental and trade law.