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New vulnerabilities, transitions and global governance: towards the ecologization of international law [ECOGENTIUM]

Start Date
01/09/2024

End Date
31/08/2028 - Ongoing -

Principal Investigators
Isabel Wences Simon
Carmen Pérez González

Funding
Project PID2023-146588NB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by FEDER, EU. [Subproject 1]

AEI

This subproject [1] is based on the hypothesis that contemporary international law has institutional, normative, epistemic, and ontological frameworks that are insufficient and, to some extent, inadequate to address the ecological crisis we are already experiencing. The new reality of global interconnection presented by the Anthropocene challenges central concepts of international law such as jurisdiction, sovereignty, and rights-bearing subjects. At the same time, it broadens the scope of established concepts like vulnerability (particularly in the field of International Human Rights Law). Likewise, this scenario urges us to rethink the governance systems under which international environmental law has operated to date. In this context, the primary purpose of this subproject is to contribute to the development of a new perspective in specialized studies in this area. Thus, rather than investigating how traditional international law institutions can respond to the ecological crisis, we propose reversing the question. The aim is to analyze whether the current ecological imperative of planetary interconnection and the emergence of an ecocentric ethic can and/or should serve as the foundation for transforming how international law conceptualizes these ideas. Translating this imperative into discussions on international law requires approaches that focus not only on the effectiveness of existing norms. It is necessary to incorporate into the analysis the actors driving these new debates in the international sphere, the transition models they propose, and the global governance schemes that emerge from them, their critical points, and contributions in terms of global justice. With this consideration, this subproject seeks to provide an original approach to studying the role of international law in addressing the global ecological crisis through an analysis that incorporates three interrelated aspects: 1) the dogmatic and ontological limitations of anthropocentric international law in addressing climate change and the proposal to green international law; 2) the emergence of new subjects and types of ecological vulnerabilities within international law discussions and the transformations they may produce; and 3) the types of transitions and global governance schemes that may arise from this new reality of interconnection and planetary environmental regulation. The dialogue between these analytical frameworks will allow us to provide a holistic approach to our research, addressing the dogmatic, institutional, political, and philosophical-normative aspects of the problem. In short, this subproject aims to contribute to the emerging debate on the necessary greening of international law, its principles, institutions, tools, techniques, and processes. Greening is considered necessary to overcome, through law and international cooperation, the obstacles that have been posed by the diversity of political and economic interests in the fight against climate change and to promote the adoption of new rules and governance structures that recognize ecological interests as essential values of the International Community.  

Carmen Pérez González
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Principal Investigator

Isabel Wences Simon
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Principal Investigator

Rafael Vázquez García
Universidad de Granada

Rosa Giles Carnero
Universidad de Huelva

Nuria Arenas Hidalgo
Universidad de Huelva

Itziar Gómez Fernández
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

María Cruz Llamazares Calzadilla
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Víctor Alonso Rocafort
Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Ruth Martinón Quintero
Universidad de La Laguna

Jorge Resina de la Fuente
Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Ramiro Ávila Santamaría
Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (Ecuador)

María Valeria Berros
Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Argentina)

Francesca Ippolito
Universidad de Cagliari (Italy)

María Amparo Martínez Arroyo
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico)

Andrea Cesarone
Universidad Complutense de Madrid

David García García
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Germán J. Arenas Arias
Universidad de Alcalá

Delia-Elisa Budeanu
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

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