Legal instruments play an important role for the transformation towards a sustainable society: They enable binding and enforceable political control, act as essential guidance for social actors, create incentives for behavioral changes or promote sustainable action in public administration. Therefore, legal aspects have an important steering function in the field of sustainable development.
The European Union and its member states have a decisive role in the finding of legal solutions for the sustainable transformation: In Europe, a series of regulatory developments are underway that affect the most diverse areas of law. To date, however, no systematic overview of these numerous developments exists. To fill this gap, researchers from the Wuppertal Institute and the European Law Students' Association are jointly coordinating a legal research group on law and sustainability. Under academic guidance, students from all over Europe investigate European developments in the field of "law and sustainability" over a period of about one year. In the process, research groups shed light on regulatory developments in the European Union and some European countries. The resulting individual reports are then compiled into an overall report and supplemented with more detailed information on the topic of law and sustainability.
The aim of the project is to provide a comprehensive overview of existing and planned instruments for the regulatory promotion of the sustainable transformation. This should enable interested parties to more easily access the topic of "law as a tool for sustainable development" and help actors in research and practice to understand and take up this important perspective. The final report is aimed at policy-makers, researchers and students.
