More likely than not, the world will be facing a series of serious crises, connected to climate change, environmental disasters, natural catastrophes, shortage of all kinds of raw materials and sources of mineral energy, as well as new financial crises. To the extent they are man-made, they probably have common denominators, most importantly a short term view of those in responsible positions and conflicts of interest of the same.
If we cannot stem the tide, the consequences will be of an unprecedented magnitude in terms of personal suffering and financial harm for present and future generations. The project aims to explore whether legal means can be used to avoid crises and, to the extent this would not be the case, how to cope with them. Answering the latter question requires a balancing of the very different interests of all concerned (such as “developed” and “less developed” countries as well as present and future generations). The angle will mainly be intra-disciplinary (international, national and human rights law); besides we have to borrow from the insights from countries from all over the globe.
[SU Researchers: Oliver Ruppel, Gerhard Kemp]
