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Phosphorus, Scarcity of Natural Resources, and the Law

During the last years, the Research Unit Sustainability and Climate Policy has done a lot of research on questions of phosphorus and scarcity of natural resources, as well as on land-use and climate change - from a transdisciplinary point of view. See, among other papers, here.

Felix Ekardt on various international conferences

Since 2007, Felix Ekardt has given speeches and presentations on some 50 international conferences on questions of sustainability, climate change, justice, human rights, phosphorus scarcity, land-use, etc. For details and also for forthcoming speeches, see the list of presentations.

Universalism and Discourse Ethics

The Research Unit Sustainability and Climate Policy has done a lot of research on the normative grounds of sustainability - respectively on the theoretical basis of both ethics and law. The most informative is the big German volume "Theorie der Nachhaltigkeit", but there is also a number of English papers. See, among other papers, here.

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Theory of Sustainability

Sustainability describes a form of economy and society that is lasting and can be lived on a global scale. The society-changing potential of the claim: ‘More justice between generations, more global justice – at the same time’ faces the peril of getting out sight. Sustainability is just not the trivial general claim to take social, economic, and environmental policy serious independent of any relationship in time and space and to strike a sound balance between these aspects. And sustainability in the sense of the Rio Conference 1992 does not mean a ‘Three Column Conception’ at least not in a separating or additive sense. From the stance of policy-making and social sciences (e. g. law, political sciences, social sciences, economics, theology, psychology, etc.) diverse working fields and problems are affected, namely

  1. a clear definition of the concept ‘sustainability’ (level of definition);
  2. the – partly only scientific – descriptive analysis of how sustainable societies currently are if measured against this yardstick and which developments take place;
  3. the likewise descriptive question which external hindrances and motivations have so far obstructed the enforcement of sustainability; (level of causes)
  4. the normative question why sustainability be attractive and what, based on that assessment, its exact content is; (level of necessity)
  5. how much sustainability is required from a legal or moral point of view if it is balanced against competing interests, e. g. short-term economic growth, including the question which institutions have to resolve this issue and which margin of discretion they should enjoy in doing so; (level of balancing)
  6. which means can be employed to effectively attain the chosen goals, including possible obstructions, actors, strategies, etc. (level of enforcement)

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