Recent Publications and Speeches
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News

Stopping Biodiversity Loss, Human Rights, and International Environmental Law - our Biodiv Constitutional Lawsuit as "World Premiere"

The CBD as well as (national and transnational) human rights contain an obligation to halt biodiversity loss since 1993 at the latest, which has been continuously violated ever since. Governments can also be sued on this basis. We show this in a new international paper: here and in our biodiv lawsuit against the German (and indirectly the EU) legislator: here.

Negative Emissions: Forests, Peatlands - and Geoengineering?

Even with zero fossil fuels and greatly reduced animal husbandry, residual emissions remain that must be compensated - even if sufficiency can make this amount of emissions smaller than the IPCC assumes. This requires above all the regulation of forests and peatlands (which are also central to biodiversity protection). Here, economic instruments and regulatory law relate to each other differently than they often do. Three international articles explore this - on forests, on peatlands and on the very problematic large-scale BECCSand other kinds of geoengineering.

Paris Target, Human Rights, and our Groundbreaking Constitutional Court Verdict on Unambitious Climate Protection and Precautionary Principle

German and EU climate policy is contrary to international law and constitutional human rights. Even the unambitious targets themselves are illegal. More on this in our new legal analysis, including critical perspectives on IPCC AR6 here. In April 2021, we won a groundbreaking lawsuit at the German Constitutional Court. See on this in Nature Climate Change, in The Environment and Sustainability.

Economic Instruments for Phosphorus Governance - Climate and Biodiv Targets

The existing legal framework on P is strongly characterized by detailed command-and-control provisions and thus suffers from governance problems such as enforcement deficits, rebound and shifting effects. Our new paper focuses on how these challenges could be addressed by economic instruments. The article highlights not only the impact of the instruments on P management, but also on adjacent environmental areas. We pay particular attention to the governance effects on reaching international binding climate and biodiv goals: here.

Land Use, Livestock, Quantity Governance, and Economic Instruments

The production of animal food products is (besides fossil fuels) one of the most important noxae with regard to many of the environmental problems, such as climate change, biodiversity loss or globally disrupted nutrient cycles. This paper provides a qualitative governance analysis of which regulatory options there are to align livestock farming with the legally binding environmental objectives, in particular the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity: here.

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Speeches and Presentations of Felix Ekardt

This is a list of some international speeches and presentations of Felix Ekardt. A longer list including the German speeches can be found on the German page

  1. Globale Gerechtigkeit (international congress of the Wuppertal-Institute in Hamburg, June 2005)
  2. Sustainable Development – the Issue of Inter-Generation Fairness (international congress of the Council of the Baltic Sea States in Helsinki, November 2006)
  3. Border Tax Adjustments: Environmental Protection within the Framework of the WTO (held at the Faculty of business science of the TU Darmstadt, January 2007)
  4. Sustainability and Bioenergy (international congress of the Council of the Baltic Sea States in Rostock, February 2007)
  5. Nachhaltigkeit in der Unternehmenspraxis (international congress of the faculty of business science of the Montanuniversität Leoben/Austria on economical questions of sustainability, March 2007)
  6. Sustainability and a New Concept of Liberty (international jurisprudential congress of the Norwegian Research Council at the 20th anniversary of the Brundtland reports at the University of Oslo, May 2007)
  7. Legal Aspects of Uranium in Environmental Compartments (international congress of the Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landwirtschaft in Braunschweig about agricultural problems of uranium, June 2007)
  8. A Theory of Sustainability (world-congress of Sustainable Development Research Conference in Västeras, June 2007)
  9. Climate Protection and the Law (European climate protection congress of the European environmental youth associations in Berlin, June 2007)
  10. The Headscarf, the Right and the Good (world congress of the International Law and Society Association in Berlin, July 2007)
  11. Problems of Intergenerational and Global Justice (world congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) in Krakow, August 2007)
  12. Sustainability, Ethics, and Science (international congress of a research network about questions of sustainability in Ferrara, September 2007)
  13. Environmental Taxation, WTO Law, and a New Concept of Liberty (Global Conference on Environmental Taxation in Munich, October 2007)
  14. Issues of Non-Sustainability in Fertiliser Legislation (international congress of the Council of the Baltic Sea States in Braunschweig, April 2008)
  15. Competition Law, WTO Law, and Sustainability (international congress of the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau and the University of Frankfurt a.M. about competition and sustainability, May 2008)
  16. Sustainability, Justice, and the Law (international congress of a research network for sustainability questions in Bayreuth, August 2008)
  17. Gerechtigkeit und gutes Leben – rechtstheoretische und rechtssoziologische Perspektiven (international congress of the German Association for the Sociology of Law in Luzern, September 2008)
  18. Climate Protection Law and Global Ethics (congress of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, October 2008)
  19. Climate Protection Law, Corporate Responsibility, and the Law (congress of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the Macao Consumer Council in Macau, October 2008)
  20. Distributive Justice, Competitiveness, and National/Global Climate Protection (with Antonia von Hövel) (first international online congress on climate protection, November 2008)
  21. Sustainability and Phosphor in Agriculture (international congress of the Julius-Kühn-Instituts/German Federal Ministry for Agriculture in Braunschweig on the problems of phosphorus, November 2008)
  22. Distributive Justice, Competitiveness, and Transnational Climate Protection (congress of the Hans-Jonas-Zentrum/faculty of philosophy of the Freie Universität in Berlin on climate protections and problems of justice, March 2009)
  23. Wird die Demokratie ungerecht? (held at the summer school GlobArt at the monastery Pernegg/Austria, August 2009)
  24. Constitutionalism in Germany, Europe, and China (speech and discussion with Udo Di Fabio at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, September 2009)
  25. Distributive Justice, Competitiveness, and Transnational Climate Protection (world congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) in Beijing, September 2009)
  26. Climate Protection and Social Distributive Justice (round table, invitation by Misereor in Beijing, September 2009)
  27. The Three Constitutional Courts in Europe and Germany (held at the German-Chinese law institute in Beijing, September 2009)
  28. Global Climate Protection Law (held at the Nankai University, School of Law in Tianjin, September 2009)
  29. German and European Climate Protection Law (held at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, September 2009)
  30. Ecological and Social Ambivalencies of Bioenergy (second international online congress on climate protection, November 2009)
  31. Sustainable Germany in a Globalised World (World Climate Summit in Copenhagen, December 2009)
  32. Economic Growth and Distributive Justice (congress of the Austrian Federal Government, the Club of Rome, and others on the future of the idea of growth in Vienna, January 2010)
  33. Participation and Climate Protection (congress of some European environmental research institutes, ministries and environmental NGOs in Prague, March 2010)
  34. Social Distributive Justice and Climate Protection (congress of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Beijing, April 2010)
  35. Climate Policy: From Copenhagen to Mexico City (congress of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Beijing, April 2010)
  36. Climate Justice and the Carbon Budget Approach (session chair at the congress of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Beijing, April 2010)
  37. Climate Change (held at the Center for International Business Ethics in Beijing, April 2010)
  38. Human Rights in the European Union (held at the Peking University, Faculty of Law, April 2010)
  39. Climate Justice and Emissions Trading (congress of the Initiative Psychology in Environmental Protection in Berlin, June 2010)
  40. Sustainability and Economic Growth (congress of the Bundesland Steiermark/ Austria in Graz, June 2010)
  41. European and International Climate Law after Copenhagen (held at the University of Graz/ Austria, July 2010)
  42. Sustainability in Soil Protection, Land Use, and Phosphorus Fertilization (world fertilizer congress of the CIEC in Bucharest, August 2010)
  43. Klimawandel und Klimakultur (congress of the Bundesland Niederösterreich/ Austria in St. Pölten, November 2010)
  44. Intergenerational Justice and the Law (congress of some universities in Paris/ Versailles and Poitiers, December 2010)
  45. Sustainability in Soil Protection, Land Use, and Phosphorus Fertilization (international congress of the Council of the Baltic Sea States in Rostock, December 2010)
  46. Phosphorus Scarcity as a Legal Problem (presentation held at Zurich University, March 2011)
  47. Sustainability as a Legal Problem (world congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) in Frankfurt, August 2011)
  48. Toward a New Approach in Discourse Theory of Justice and Law (world congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) in Frankfurt, August 2011)
  49. A Critical Review of Efficiency Ethics (world congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) in Frankfurt, August 2011)
  50. Habermas, Honneth, Discourse Ethics (session chair at the world congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) in Frankfurt, August 2011)
  51. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen ökologisch-sozialer Governance (international congress for sociology of law in Vienna, September 2011)
  52. Sozialrecht (session chair on an international congress for sociology of law in Vienna, September 2011)
  53. Social Awareness for Energy Change (Conference of various universities and public institutions on energy change in Europe in Stettin, September 2011)
  54. International Resource Politics (with Raimund Bleischwitz and Heidi Feldt) (International Workshop of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin, October 2011)
  55. Land-Use, Climate Protection, and Emissions Trading (Global Conference on Environmental Taxation in Madrid, October 2011)
  56. The Right to Food and Water (Water Dialogues in Berlin, January 2012)
  57. Climate Change as a Social and Economic Problem (conference of various universities in Stettin, May 2012)
  58. Sustainability and Climate Policy (conference of the Bundesland Steiermark/ Austria in Murau, July 2012)
  59. TINA Principle in Environmental Protection (conference of the Bundesland Steiermark/ Austria in Murau, July 2012)
  60. Human Rights and Climate Change (congress of some European environmental research institutes, ministries and environmental NGOs in Berlin, November 2012)
  61. Soziale Lern- und Transformationsprozesse für die Energiewende (presentation held at Bern University, November 2012)
  62. Nachhaltigkeit im Immobilienbereich (conference of the Austrian real estate branch in Kitzbühel, December 2012)
  63. Nachhaltigkeit und kommunaler Klimaschutz (speech at Klagenfurt University/ Austria, December 2012)
  64. Status quo and need for development in society, politics and communities (presentation at the Youth Future Conference in Bonn, September 2013)
  65. Land-Use as a Normative and Governance Problem: The Case of Environmental Economics (presentation at the Youth Future Conference in Bonn, September 2013)
  66. Experience Post-Growth (presentation at the Youth Future Conference in Bonn, September 2013)
  67. Societal Challenges within the Rural-Urban Continuum (tropics conferende at Hohenheim University, September 2013)
  68. Visions in Science for a Globalized World: Sustainability (conference Visions in Science of Max Planck Society in Dresden, September 2013)
  69. The Right to Water (Internationale Tagung der Universität Luzern, October 2013)
  70. Phosphorus Governance for Sustainability (International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig, September 2014)
  71. The Limits to Climate Economics (International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig, September 2014)
  72. Climate Justice (International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig, September 2014)
  73. City of the Future (International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig, September 2014)
  74. Border Adjustments, Climate Protection, and WTO Law (presentation at the Global Conference on Environmental Taxation in Copenhagen, September 2014)
  75. Phosphorus as an Issue for Humanities (conference of the Science Campus on Phosphorus Research at Rostock University, March 2015)
  76. Legal and economic policy options to foster sustainable nutrient management in Europe (European Phosphorus Conference in Berlin, March 2015)
  77. Roundtable on Phosphorus Policy Options (European Phosphorus Conference in Berlin, March 2015)
  78. Nudge Theory and Environmental Law: Perspectives and Examples (Law and Economics Conference in Lucerne, April 2015)
  79. Climate Governance (ElbMUN Conference in Dresden, April 2015)
  80. Climate Change as a Social and Economic Problem (presentation at Tallinn University/ Estonia, May 2015)
  81. Climate Change as a Social and Economic Problem (presentation at Riga University/ Latvia, May 2015)
  82. Climate Change as a Social and Economic Problem (presentation at Vilnius University/ Lithuania, May 2015)
  83. Climate Change as a Social and Economic Problem (presentation at the International Youth Summit in Tutzing, May 2015)
  84. Climate Change and Social Distributive Justice (presentation at Leipzig University/ Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, May 2015)
  85. The roots of climate protection failure – apart from egoism, tragedy of the commons and pathway dependencies (presentation at the International Conference on Public Policy in Milan, July 2015)
  86. Environmental Planning and Environmental Economic Instruments (presentation at the International Conference of the IÖR in Dresden, September 2015)
  87. Bioenergy, Ambivalences and the Law (presentation at a conference of the IASS in Potsdam, October 2015)
  88. Phosphorus and Social Science (presentation at a conference of the German Phosphorus Platform in Berlin, October 2015)
  89. Sustainability as a Societal Problem (presentation at the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf, November 2015)
  90. Defending Environmental Economic Instruments against the Economists: Transforming the Theoretical Basis of Pricing Natural Resources (presentation at the Law and Economics Conference in Lucerne, April 2016)
  91. Carbon Pricing (presentation for Vietnamese members of government in Leipzig, May 2016)
  92. Climate Law (roundtable at EU/ Russia Forum in Berlin, May 2016)
  93. Phosphorus Governance (presentation at the Phosphorus Conference of the Center for Advanced Studies of Munich University, June 2016)
  94. TTIP: Opportunities and Limitations (panel discussion of the Ernährungswirtschaft e.V. in Berlin, June 2016)
  95. Sufficiency (International Degrowth Conference in Budapest, August 2016)
  96. Sufficiency (International Sustainability Transitions Conference in Wuppertal, September 2016)
  97. Defending Economic Instruments Against the Economists and Their Opponents (presentation at the Energy and Society Conference in Leipzig, September 2016)
  98. Policy Options on P Overuse (panel at the 8th International Phosphorus Workshop in Rostock, September 2016)
  99. Defending Economic Instruments Against the Economists and Their Opponents (presentation at the Global Conference on Environmental Taxation in Groningen, September 2016)
  100. Technological Change or Behavioral Change? Sufficiency, Degrowth, and Sustainability (presentation at the STS Conference in Trento/ Italy, November 2016)
  101. Sociotechnical Environments: actors, technologies, geographies and new kinds of action (presentation at the STS Conference in Trento/ Italy, November 2016)
  102. The temperature target of the Paris Agreement and the forgotten aspects of a meaningful energy transition (presentation at the Law and Economics Conference in Lucerne, April 2017)
  103. Defending Environmental Economic Instruments against the Economists and their Opponents (presentation at the Environmental Sociology Conference in Warsaw, May 2017)
  104. Explaining Non-Sustainability: Towards a Strictly Interdisciplinary Perspective in Behavioural Science (presentation at the Environmental Sociology Conference in Warsaw, May 2017)
  105. Gemeinwohl und Eigeninteresse als Problem der verschiedenen konkurrierenden Verhaltenswissenschaften – am Beispiel Klimaschutz (presentation at the Swiss Conference of Sociologists in Zurich, June 2017)
  106. Sustainability and Climate Policy (presentation at the International Summer School in Goßberg, August 2017)
  107. Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Basis for Defining Targets of Biodiversity Governance? (European Environmental Law Forum Conference in Copenhagen, August 2017)
  108. Paris Agreement and Human Rights (presentation at the Climate Litigation Workshop at the COP 23 in Bonn, November 2017)
  109. Sustainability, Law and Human Rights (presentation at a conference of various Italian and Austrian universities on Sustainable Food Policies in Meran, November 2017)
  110. Phosphorus Governance and Command-and-Control Law (presentation at the BonaRes Conference in Berlin, February 2018)
  111. Animal Food, Land-Use Governance and Phosphorus Governance (presentation at the BonaRes Conference in Berlin, February 2018)
  112. Simplification and Scapegoating – towards the Failure of Democracy and Reason? (presentation at the Environmental Sociology Conference in Warsaw, May 2018)
  113. Climate Change: Failure of Growth Paradigm and Capitalism? (presentation at the Environmental Sociology Conference in Warsaw, May 2018)
  114. Sustainable Agriculture (presentation at Strasbourg University, September 2018)
  115. Paris Agreement, Human Rights, and State Liability (European Environmental Law Forum Conference in Como, September 2018)
  116. Pricing Nature vs. Pricing Fossil Fuels (European Environmental Law Forum Conference in Como, September 2018)
  117. Wie einfache Wahrheiten den liberal-demokratischen Rechtsstaat untergraben - aber nicht nur die der Populisten (presentation at a legal sociologists' conference in Basel, September 2018)
  118. Menschenrechte intertemporal und global-grenzüberschreitend? (presentation at a legal sociologists' conference in Basel, September 2018)
  119. Phosphorus Governance (presentation at the international symposium of the Science Campus Phosphorus Research in Rostock, November 2018)
  120. Environmental Protection by Means of Consumer Law? (presentation at the Law and Economics Conference in Lucerne, March 2019)
  121. Animal Food, Land-Use Governance, and Phosphorus Governance (presentation at the 8th International Phosphorus Workshop in Zurich, July 2019)
  122. Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Legal and Philosophical Analysis with Regard to Sustainability (presentation at the World Congress of Legal and Social Philosophers in Lucerne, July 2019)
  123. A Theory of Human-Rights-Based Freedom under the Auspices of Sustainability (presentation at the World Congress of Legal and Social Philosophers in Lucerne, July 2019)
  124. Agriculture-related Climate Policies – Law and Governance Issues on European and Global Level (presentation at the European Environmental Law Forum Conference in Utrecht, August 2019)
  125. Zero emissions in 30 or 10 years? Article 2 of the Paris Agreement and Flaws of IPCC SR 1.5 (presentation at the European Environmental Law Forum Conference in Utrecht, August 2019)
  126. Economic Instruments, Ecological Effectiveness, and Liberal Democracy (presentation at the Kosmos Conference in Berlin, August 2019)
  127. Transformation to Sustainability (presentation at the EUREC Conference in Bolzano, October 2019)
  128. Paris Agreement, Precautionary Principle, and Human Rights (presentation at the Conference of the Federal German Government on Geo-Engineering in Brussels, November 2019)
  129. Livestock Governance (presentation at the conference of the Phosphorus Campus in Rostock, November 2019)
  130. Climate Change: How Social Change Really Works (presentation at the EUMETSAT Health Day in Darmstadt, February 2020)
  131. Future Mobility and Sustainability (presentation at the IFA in Berlin, September 2020)
  132. Livestock Governance (presentation at the Global Conference on Environmental Taxation online, September 2020)
  133. Land-Use Governance (presentation at the conference of the Phosphorus Campus in Rostock online, November 2020)
  134. Transformation to Sustainability (presentation at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich online, November 2020)
  135. Paris Agreement, Precautionary Principle, and Human Rights: Global Zero Emissions by 2035? (presentation at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, December 2020)
  136. Universal Basic Income and Sustainability (panel discussion at Leiden University online, April 2021)
  137. Paris Agreement, Human Rights, and die IPCC (presentation at Utrecht University online, May 2021)
  138. Climate Litigation, Human Rights, and Paris Agreement (presentation at the IDDRI in Paris online, June 2021)
  139. Human Rights, Paris Agreement, and Climate Litigation (presentation at the conference on climate litigation of Tübingen University, July 2021)
  140. Paris Target, Climate Justice, Climate Litigation, and the German Federal Constitutional Court (presentation at the European Environmental Law Forum Conference in Bournemouth online, September 2021)
  141. Climate Litigation and Human Rights (presentation at the University of Western Cape/South Africa online, September 2021)
  142. Paris Target, Climate Justice, Climate Litigation, and the German Federal Constitutional Court (presentation at the Global Conference on Environmental Taxation online, September 2021)
  143. Green Taxation (session chair at the Global Conference on Environmental Taxation online, September 2021)
  144. The German Climate Verdict (presentation at the conference on climate litigation at the University of Santiago de Chile, September 2021)
  145. Climate Litigation and the German Election (presentation hosted by MUNA online, October 2021)
  146. Climate Policy – Urban versus Transnational Level (presentation at the Urban Sustainability Conference in China online, November 2021)
  147. Climate Litigation (presentation at the Center for Climate Law and Sustainability Studies in Prague online, November 2021)
  148. Phosphorus Justice: The Climate Verdict of the German Federal Constitutional Court and its Implications for Land Use (presentation at the conference of the Phosphorus Campus in Rostock online, January 2022)
  149. Climate Litigation and NGOs (presentation at the conference of Hagen University online, February 2022)
  150. Rights of Nature (panel at at the World Council of Churches online, September 2022)
  151. Ecological Human Rights (presentation at Almaty University online, September 2022)
  152. Climate Justice, Human Rights and the German Lawsuit (presentation at the conference of That-Phanom Municipality in Thailand online, November 2022)
  153. Precision Farming and Phosphorus Governance (presentation at the conference of the Phosphorus Campus in Rostock online, November 2022)
  154. Sustainability and the Law (presentation at the Common Core of Private Law in Groningen, May 2023)
  155. The Paris Target and the European Green Deal (presentation at the European Environmental Law Forum Conference in Leipzig, August 2023)
  156. Genese und Wirkung des BVerfG-Klimabeschlusses (presentation at a legal sociologists' conference in Innsbruck, September 2023)
  157. Weder Homogenität noch Diversität – Kopftuchstreit unter liberal-universalistischen Vorzeichen (presentation at a legal sociologists' conference in Innsbruck, September 2023)
  158. Phosphorus and Human Sciences: Some Core Results of the Phosphorus Campus (presentation at the conference of the Phosphorus Campus in Rostock, October 2023)
  159. Biodiversity, Climate, and Human Rights (presentation at the European Environmental Law Forum Conference in Groningen, August 2024)
  160. Opportunities of Emissions Trading Schemes: A New Perspective (presentation at the European Environmental Law Forum Conference in Groningen, August 2024)
  161. Sustainability and a New Concept of Freedom (presentation at the workshop Reinventing Sustainability of the IÖR in Berlin, September 2024)
  162. The Climate Verdict of the German Federal Constitutional Court (presentation at the Grundgesetz conference der University of British Columbia in Vancouver online, October 2024)