Environmental Law in Transformation

Environmental law is undergoing a fundamental shift. Where it once set peripheral limits on harmful activity, it is now being called upon to actively steer societies through long-term ecological transformation, reshaping energy systems, land use, and entire economic sectors. Environmental Law in Transformation offers a systematic examination of this emerging legal paradigm and the governance challenges it raises. Drawing on the European Green Deal and landmark legislation such as the EU Climate Law and the Nature Restoration Law, this volume investigates how environmental law is evolving into a formative instrument of change. Leading German scholars explore the foundational tensions of transformative governance: how law can commit to long-term goals under deep uncertainty; how the precautionary principle can be reconciled with the need to promote sustainable innovation; and how planning-oriented legal frameworks can legitimately bind not only the executive and private actors, but the legislature itself. Covering planetary boundaries and constitutional law, legal drivers for green innovation, multifunctional land use, and knowledge obligations in environmental quality management, the volume offers both critical analysis and forward-looking reform proposals. An essential reading for legal scholars, environmental practitioners, and policymakers navigating the ecological transformation of the 21st century. This is an open access book.