Legal Sustainability: The need to rethink Law holistically

A portrait picture of Markus P. Beham
Markus P. Beham Wolfson Alumnus
Date 03/05/2022 at 16.30 - 03/05/2022 at 17.30 Where Gatsby Room, Chancellor's Centre

Inter-College Cambridge Green Week 2-8 May

A portrait picture of Markus P. Beham

This lecture describes how the law – understood as a whole, beyond environmental and related questions – can provide tools to leverage the political goal of combatting climate change.

While environmental, energy and procurement law will continue to be central areas of law for the implementation of the SDGs, legal sustainability requires a perspective across all areas of law. Sustainability can only succeed if it becomes a universally valid, guiding legal maxim. It is no longer sufficient to delineate the law along "classic“ lines of public and private, international and domestic. As society increasingly turns towards a more sustainable future, the legal profession will have to reassess its basic assumptions to fulfill its social purpose.

Seeking discussion on
How can we make sustainability fair and equitable for all?
What is the role of corporate vs government vs personal responsibility?
What is the role of adaption and mitigation?
How do we limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees?

Extra Info

Markus P. Beham is Assistant Professor at the Chair of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Public International Law, European and International Economic Law of the University of Passau, Germany, and an adjunct lecturer in international law at the University of Vienna, Austria.

He holds a joint doctoral degree from the Université Paris Nanterre and the University of Vienna and a doctoral degree in history from the latter as well as an LL.M. degree from Columbia Law School in New York. Prior to returning to academia, Markus was part of the International Arbitration Group of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, resident in the firm’s Vienna office.

He continues to provide expert advice for private clients, law firms, NGOs, international organisations, and states on matters of international law, EU law, and arbitral procedure. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law during Lent term 2020 and is a Member of Wolfson College since January 2020.

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