Pub Date : 2026-02-11DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100198
Ysaline Reid, Tomaso Ferrando
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 from the EU of seven key forest-risk commodities whenever they are linked with deforestation, forest degradation, or illegality. Drawing on decolonial and critical food systems scholarship, this article critically examines the EU’s position in combating global deforestation and forest degradation by positioning the EUDR in historically shaped and unequally constructed agri-food chains. Whereas the EU’s plan to decrease deforestation and forest degradation linked with its substantive consumption of products from the global south is an innovative step from the point of view of transnational governance of environmental degradation, we find that the historical amnesia, the emphasis on global trade, and the push for ‘green value chains’ fail to address the root causes of deforestation. Moreover, we contend that the EU legislator overlooked the potential of using transnational governance to rethink agri-food systems, including by promoting re-regionalization in the name of food sovereignty and the right to food.
{"title":"Unravelling the EU Deforestation-Free Products Regulation: A Transnational Governance Mechanism that Misses the Forest for the Trees","authors":"Ysaline Reid, Tomaso Ferrando","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100198","url":null,"abstract":"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 from the EU of seven key forest-risk commodities whenever they are linked with deforestation, forest degradation, or illegality. Drawing on decolonial and critical food systems scholarship, this article critically examines the EU’s position in combating global deforestation and forest degradation by positioning the EUDR in historically shaped and unequally constructed agri-food chains. Whereas the EU’s plan to decrease deforestation and forest degradation linked with its substantive consumption of products from the global south is an innovative step from the point of view of transnational governance of environmental degradation, we find that the historical amnesia, the emphasis on global trade, and the push for ‘green value chains’ fail to address the root causes of deforestation. Moreover, we contend that the EU legislator overlooked the potential of using transnational governance to rethink agri-food systems, including by promoting re-regionalization in the name of food sovereignty and the right to food.","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146153527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-29DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100149
Gabriel Eckstein, Theo Buchler, Caleb Cook, Heping Dang, Robyn Stein, Stefano Burchi, Gabriela Cuadrado Quesada, Juan Pablo Galeano, Eric Garner, Amy Hardberger, Imad Antoine Ibrahim, Oudi Kgomongwe
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 documented in the academic literature. This study addresses that gap through a comparative analysis of domestic groundwater ownership regimes across ten jurisdictions in nine countries spanning five continents. It identifies three dominant models of groundwater ownership: private ownership, public ownership, and non-ownership with public oversight. It then examines how these ownership doctrines impact key dimensions of groundwater governance, including the nature and transferability of the ownership right, the level of government at which regulation takes place, implications for rights of use, and interactions with customary and Indigenous rights. Doing so offers unique insight into how nations with different legal traditions, governance structures, and customary practices address the ownership of groundwater resources. It also suggests that different ownership (and non-ownership) models can have distinct implications for other aspects of groundwater governance.
{"title":"Comparison of Groundwater Ownership Regimes in Ten Jurisdictions Across Five Continents","authors":"Gabriel Eckstein, Theo Buchler, Caleb Cook, Heping Dang, Robyn Stein, Stefano Burchi, Gabriela Cuadrado Quesada, Juan Pablo Galeano, Eric Garner, Amy Hardberger, Imad Antoine Ibrahim, Oudi Kgomongwe","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100149","url":null,"abstract":"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 documented in the academic literature. This study addresses that gap through a comparative analysis of domestic groundwater ownership regimes across ten jurisdictions in nine countries spanning five continents. It identifies three dominant models of groundwater ownership: private ownership, public ownership, and non-ownership with public oversight. It then examines how these ownership doctrines impact key dimensions of groundwater governance, including the nature and transferability of the ownership right, the level of government at which regulation takes place, implications for rights of use, and interactions with customary and Indigenous rights. Doing so offers unique insight into how nations with different legal traditions, governance structures, and customary practices address the ownership of groundwater resources. It also suggests that different ownership (and non-ownership) models can have distinct implications for other aspects of groundwater governance.","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146070229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-21DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100162
Jean Allain, Iman Prihandono
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 argues that the future-oriented guarantees of non-repetition create an untapped opportunity for an injured state. Benefiting from the leverage attached to receiving guarantees of non-repetition, an injured state may evoke the International Law Commission’s Articles on Prevention of Transboundary Harm to negotiate future prevention and, where it sees fit, to seek to institutionalize future oversight by various joint-monitoring mechanisms, going so far as to call for a bilateral intergovernmental organization.
{"title":"Guarantees of Non-Repetition and the Future of Transboundary Harm: Lessons Flowing from the Montara Oil Spill","authors":"Jean Allain, Iman Prihandono","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100162","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100162","url":null,"abstract":"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 argues that the future-oriented guarantees of non-repetition create an untapped opportunity for an injured state. Benefiting from the leverage attached to receiving guarantees of non-repetition, an injured state may evoke the International Law Commission’s Articles on Prevention of Transboundary Harm to negotiate future prevention and, where it sees fit, to seek to institutionalize future oversight by various joint-monitoring mechanisms, going so far as to call for a bilateral intergovernmental organization.","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146021884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-06DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100150
Irene Musselli, Claudia Ituarte-Lima
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 this seemingly polarized debate by re-evaluating the trade concerns raised by LA WTO delegates through a human rights lens. It highlights the disconnect between trade policy positions and human rights commitments concerning pesticides, revealing a bias among WTO delegates in favour of commercial interests, often at the expense of broader societal and ecological concerns raised by human rights-holders in both LA and the EU. The article suggests procedural innovations at both the national and WTO levels that could broaden the trade policy discussion on pesticides, aligning it with human rights standards and urgent collective action for biodiversity stewardship.
{"title":"Biodiversity, EU Pesticides Law, and Trade: Deconstructing World Trade Organization Delegates’ Concerns through a Human Rights Lens","authors":"Irene Musselli, Claudia Ituarte-Lima","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100150","url":null,"abstract":"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 this seemingly polarized debate by re-evaluating the trade concerns raised by LA WTO delegates through a human rights lens. It highlights the disconnect between trade policy positions and human rights commitments concerning pesticides, revealing a bias among WTO delegates in favour of commercial interests, often at the expense of broader societal and ecological concerns raised by human rights-holders in both LA and the EU. The article suggests procedural innovations at both the national and WTO levels that could broaden the trade policy discussion on pesticides, aligning it with human rights standards and urgent collective action for biodiversity stewardship.","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"130 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145903671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100137
Elsa Tsioumani, Florian Rabitz
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 outcomes have recently shifted towards lower stringency in substance and weaker institutionalization in process. To confirm this trend, we examine decisions adopted by the CBD Conferences of the Parties in 2022 and 2024. We focus on outcomes on three key agenda items: (i) digital sequence information on genetic resources, (ii) risk assessment of living modified organisms, and (iii) synthetic biology. We analyze shifts towards lower stringency in the light of scholarship on legalization and de-legalization, including the softening of international law. We conclude by assessing the implications for the CBD, and for global biotechnology governance more generally.
{"title":"The De-Legalization of Novel Biotechnology Governance under the Convention on Biological Diversity","authors":"Elsa Tsioumani, Florian Rabitz","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100137","url":null,"abstract":"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 outcomes have recently shifted towards lower stringency in substance and weaker institutionalization in process. To confirm this trend, we examine decisions adopted by the CBD Conferences of the Parties in 2022 and 2024. We focus on outcomes on three key agenda items: (i) digital sequence information on genetic resources, (ii) risk assessment of living modified organisms, and (iii) synthetic biology. We analyze shifts towards lower stringency in the light of scholarship on legalization and de-legalization, including the softening of international law. We conclude by assessing the implications for the CBD, and for global biotechnology governance more generally.","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145753121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100101
Asanka Edirisinghe, Sandie Suchet-Pearson
Sri Lanka’s Indigenous Vedda community, also known as Vanniyalaththo, has profound relationships with nature that are not recognized by the country’s colonial history and, subsequently, its Western-influenced legal framework. This article explores how the gap between relational Vedda laws and state-based law in Sri Lanka can be bridged. It suggests that the emerging paradigms of legal personhood and Rights of Nature, which acknowledge the more-than-instrumental values of nature, can serve as a starting point for bridging this gap. By exploring the relational ontologies of Vedda law, this article advocates broader recognition of Vedda worldviews within the existing state-based law in Sri Lanka and highlights the role of Indigenous communities as non-state actors in shaping more-than-human governance.
{"title":"Legal Personhood and Rights of Nature: Bridging Relational Vedda Worldviews and Sri Lankan Law","authors":"Asanka Edirisinghe, Sandie Suchet-Pearson","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100101","url":null,"abstract":"Sri Lanka’s Indigenous Vedda community, also known as Vanniyalaththo, has profound relationships with nature that are not recognized by the country’s colonial history and, subsequently, its Western-influenced legal framework. This article explores how the gap between relational Vedda laws and state-based law in Sri Lanka can be bridged. It suggests that the emerging paradigms of legal personhood and Rights of Nature, which acknowledge the more-than-instrumental values of nature, can serve as a starting point for bridging this gap. By exploring the relational ontologies of Vedda law, this article advocates broader recognition of Vedda worldviews within the existing state-based law in Sri Lanka and highlights the role of Indigenous communities as non-state actors in shaping more-than-human governance.","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"781 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145717545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100125
Jonathan Liljeblad
Indigenous activists have increasingly asserted claims of ecocide in various international legal venues. While acting separately from each other, they reflect common concerns regarding destruction of the environment, particularly with respect to the impacts of environmental damage upon Indigenous communities. In doing so, they connect Indigenous interests in the environment to discourses over ecocide. The present analysis considers the appropriateness of ecocide discourse for Indigenous peoples in the light of the latter’s diverse interests in the environment. Specifically, the analysis seeks to explore the bases for Indigenous normative concerns regarding ecocide, both with respect to its meaning and its inclusion in international criminal law. The analysis draws upon Indigenous studies literature to develop a heuristic framework for organizing Indigenous perspectives, through which it is possible to clarify Indigenous arguments on ecocide. In doing so, the analysis furthers engagement with Indigenous approaches to ecocide in ways that assist descriptive understanding and prescriptive reflections addressing Indigenous concerns.
{"title":"Clarifying Indigenous Approaches to Ecocide","authors":"Jonathan Liljeblad","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100125","url":null,"abstract":"Indigenous activists have increasingly asserted claims of ecocide in various international legal venues. While acting separately from each other, they reflect common concerns regarding destruction of the environment, particularly with respect to the impacts of environmental damage upon Indigenous communities. In doing so, they connect Indigenous interests in the environment to discourses over ecocide. The present analysis considers the appropriateness of ecocide discourse for Indigenous peoples in the light of the latter’s diverse interests in the environment. Specifically, the analysis seeks to explore the bases for Indigenous normative concerns regarding ecocide, both with respect to its meaning and its inclusion in international criminal law. The analysis draws upon Indigenous studies literature to develop a heuristic framework for organizing Indigenous perspectives, through which it is possible to clarify Indigenous arguments on ecocide. In doing so, the analysis furthers engagement with Indigenous approaches to ecocide in ways that assist descriptive understanding and prescriptive reflections addressing Indigenous concerns.","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145717472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-05DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100095
Maria Lee, Chiara Armeni
This article explores a continuum of environmental participation, from formalized participation in decision-making processes, protected by law, at one end, to protest on the streets, criminalized by law, at the other. Participation across this continuum is partially constituted, but also constrained, by law. We share and extend Brian Wynne’s evocative language of ‘uninvited’ participation to describe the contributions that fall outside institutionalized participation, so that our continuum is composed of ‘invited participation’, ‘uninvited participation’, and ‘forbidden participation’. Focusing especially on those states where liberal democracy is thought to be most secure, this article looks across the interconnections between different categories of environmental participation, highlighting the breadth and intensity of the shrinking of civic space in Europe, and the role of law in that.
{"title":"Participation and Protest Across Civic Space: An Environmental Law Story","authors":"Maria Lee, Chiara Armeni","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100095","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores a continuum of environmental participation, from formalized participation in decision-making processes, protected by law, at one end, to protest on the streets, criminalized by law, at the other. Participation across this continuum is partially constituted, but also constrained, by law. We share and extend Brian Wynne’s evocative language of ‘uninvited’ participation to describe the contributions that fall outside institutionalized participation, so that our continuum is composed of ‘invited participation’, ‘uninvited participation’, and ‘forbidden participation’. Focusing especially on those states where liberal democracy is thought to be most secure, this article looks across the interconnections between different categories of environmental participation, highlighting the breadth and intensity of the shrinking of civic space in Europe, and the role of law in that.","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"122 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145441168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-07DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100113
Dominique Hervé Espejo, Dusanka Inostroza Skaric
This article argues that environmental justice extends beyond planning and decision-making to include enforcement as a critical, yet often overlooked, dimension. It advances the claim that incorporating environmental justice into enforcement law and policy is essential for addressing structural inequalities and promoting accountability in environmental governance. The primary objective of the article is to identify environmental justice guidelines embedded in enforcement frameworks, with the aim of strengthening the role of justice in regulatory practice and enhancing the equity and effectiveness of enforcement outcomes. The analysis focuses on three enforcement tools that reflect a flexible and responsive approach: (i) the United States’ Supplemental Environmental Projects, (ii) the United Kingdom’s Environmental Enforcement Undertakings, and (iii) Chile’s Compliance Programmes. The article draws on three sources of data: case studies, the environmental justice guidelines applicable to them, and the existing state of enforcement. It begins by examining the regulatory design of enforcement systems in the three jurisdictions; it then analyzes each tool to identify how environmental justice dimensions are integrated – or could be integrated – into their design and implementation. Finally, it assesses the practical application of these instruments, arguing that the deliberate incorporation of environmental justice considerations can improve the responsiveness, transparency, and legitimacy of enforcement mechanisms, which ultimately benefits both the environment and affected communities.
{"title":"Environmental Justice and Enforcement: Guidelines from Three Country Studies","authors":"Dominique Hervé Espejo, Dusanka Inostroza Skaric","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100113","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that environmental justice extends beyond planning and decision-making to include enforcement as a critical, yet often overlooked, dimension. It advances the claim that incorporating environmental justice into enforcement law and policy is essential for addressing structural inequalities and promoting accountability in environmental governance. The primary objective of the article is to identify environmental justice guidelines embedded in enforcement frameworks, with the aim of strengthening the role of justice in regulatory practice and enhancing the equity and effectiveness of enforcement outcomes. The analysis focuses on three enforcement tools that reflect a flexible and responsive approach: (i) the United States’ Supplemental Environmental Projects, (ii) the United Kingdom’s Environmental Enforcement Undertakings, and (iii) Chile’s Compliance Programmes. The article draws on three sources of data: case studies, the environmental justice guidelines applicable to them, and the existing state of enforcement. It begins by examining the regulatory design of enforcement systems in the three jurisdictions; it then analyzes each tool to identify how environmental justice dimensions are integrated – or could be integrated – into their design and implementation. Finally, it assesses the practical application of these instruments, arguing that the deliberate incorporation of environmental justice considerations can improve the responsiveness, transparency, and legitimacy of enforcement mechanisms, which ultimately benefits both the environment and affected communities.","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"24 1","pages":"1-24"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145241976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-24DOI: 10.1017/s2047102525100034
Ida Mae de Waal
Batteries are identified as a key product value chain, not only for the transition to climate neutrality but also for the European Union’s (EU) transition towards a circular economy (CE). Therefore, the EU has the ambition to create an ecosystem for sustainable batteries that follows a CE approach. As part of this effort, the EU has reviewed and revised the legislation governing the life cycle of batteries: EU chemicals, product and waste legislation. A recent example is the adoption of the Batteries Regulation, which is the first comprehensive legal framework focusing on the entire life cycle of a specific product. The Regulation removes many barriers and introduces incentives to support the transition towards a more circular battery value chain, as identified in this article through both literature and stakeholder interviews in the Netherlands. Compared to the Batteries Directive, the Batteries Regulation appears to better align with and contribute more effectively to CE objectives. Yet, this article also identifies some remaining challenges and suggestions for improvement. Close attention should be paid to the implementation of the Batteries Regulation and its encouragement of higher value retention strategies, as well as to the interaction within the legal framework on batteries as a whole to prevent adverse effects and to exploit synergies in pursuance of CE objectives.
{"title":"The Legal Transition Towards a More Circular Battery Value Chain: A Critical Analysis of the Batteries Regulation","authors":"Ida Mae de Waal","doi":"10.1017/s2047102525100034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s2047102525100034","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Batteries are identified as a key product value chain, not only for the transition to climate neutrality but also for the European Union’s (EU) transition towards a circular economy (CE). Therefore, the EU has the ambition to create an ecosystem for sustainable batteries that follows a CE approach. As part of this effort, the EU has reviewed and revised the legislation governing the life cycle of batteries: EU chemicals, product and waste legislation. A recent example is the adoption of the Batteries Regulation, which is the first comprehensive legal framework focusing on the entire life cycle of a specific product. The Regulation removes many barriers and introduces incentives to support the transition towards a more circular battery value chain, as identified in this article through both literature and stakeholder interviews in the Netherlands. Compared to the Batteries Directive, the Batteries Regulation appears to better align with and contribute more effectively to CE objectives. Yet, this article also identifies some remaining challenges and suggestions for improvement. Close attention should be paid to the implementation of the Batteries Regulation and its encouragement of higher value retention strategies, as well as to the interaction within the legal framework on batteries as a whole to prevent adverse effects and to exploit synergies in pursuance of CE objectives.</p>","PeriodicalId":45716,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Environmental Law","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145128028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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