Research Handbook on Global Climate Constitutionalism

Climate change is causing a geological transition, defining a new era in which the Earth system is configured through human action. The emergence of a global polity through physical, economic and social interaction demands a global response to this phenomenon which cannot be modelled on traditional political and legal concepts centred around the nation state. This Research Handbook explores the implementation of climate constitutionalism on a global scale, considering both language and substance in order to design adequate normative patterns for addressing climate change.

Against the narrative of the Anthropocene and its implications for the law, carefully curated chapters provide a critical approach to global environmental constitutionalism, analyzing the problems of sustainability and global equity that are so necessarily intertwined with the causes and consequences of climate change. Recognizing the adaptation and mitigation demands implied by climate change, this astute Research Handbook explores how to develop constitutional discourses and strategies to address these issues, and thereby tackle the negative effects of climate change whilst also advancing a more sustainable, equitable and responsible global society.

Timely and engaging, this Research Handbook will prove vital reading for students and scholars of environmental, constitutional and administrative law and policy. Climate change practitioners, policy makers and activists will also find its insights highly informative.