Publication: ‘Legal Perspectives on Sustainability’

22 April 2020

A new publication, co-edited by Dr Margherita Pieraccini and Professor Tonia Novitz, steps beyond conventional legal approaches to sustainability to provide fresh insights into one of the most critical global challenges of our time, examining the complex interplay of law and sustainability—both as it is now and as it should be in the future.

‘Legal Perspectives on Sustainability’ (Bristol University Press, 2020) brings together Law School academics with different expertise who research, write, and teach in the field of sustainability to provide a critical exploration of sustainability from a variety of legal perspectives.

Offering analysis of sustainability at land and sea alongside trade, labour and corporate governance perspectives, this book articulates important debates about the role of law. From impacts on local societies to domestic sustainable development policies and major international goals, it considers multiple jurisdictional levels.

Divided into four parts, the book begins with an analysis by Dr Margherita Pieraccini and Professor Tonia Novitz of sustainability and law through history as well as the path ahead.

Part Two of the book features research on sustainable corporate governance by Professor Charlotte Villiers and Dr Georgina Tsagas, and by Nina Boeger, while Part Three examines trade, with chapters by Dr Clair Gammage and Professor Tonia Novitz.

The final part of the book focuses on places, with research on land ownership and use by Emeritus Professor Chris Willmore and marine conservation law by Dr Margherita Pieraccini.

By considering sustainability through different legal sources and fields the book presents an interdisciplinary, comprehensive analysis of the way in which sustainability discourses push certain legal boundaries, and the way the law itself pushes sustainability in multiple directions.

Find out more about the publication on the Bristol University Press website.

Further information

Dr Margherita Pieraccini is Reader in Law at the University of Bristol Law School. She conducts socio-legal research in environmental matters, with a special focus on nature conservation law, marine policy, commons, legal pluralism and social-ecological resilience.

Professor Tonia Novitz is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol and Co-Director for the Law School's Centre for Law at Work. Her research interests focus predominantly on labour law, international and EU trade and the protection of human rights.

MRes Sustainable Futures – A one-year, multidisciplinary Masters degree into sustainability research for the maintenance of human well-being in spite of rising populations, limited natural resources and a fragile environment.