Louis Kotzé
BIO
Louis is Research Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, North-West University in South Africa. He is also Senior Professorial Fellow in Earth System Law at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Earth System Governance Network’s Scientific Steering Committee. His research focuses on human rights, socio-ecological justice, and environmental constitutionalism; law and the Anthropocene; and Earth system law. Louis is an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow, and in 2018 he was awarded a European Commission Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Fellowship to lead a project on Global Ecological Custodianship-Innovative International Environmental Law for the Anthropocene at the University of Lincoln. In 2022, he served as the Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam. He is assistant editor of the journal Earth System Governance and a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission on Environmental Law.
Louis joined THE NEW INSTITUTE in the Academic Year 2023/24 as the Chair in the program “Governing the Planetary Commons: a Focus on the Amazon”.
PUBLICATIONS
The planetary commons: A new paradigm for safeguarding Earth-regulating systems in the Anthropocene
in PNAS, 2024
Research Handbook on Law, Governance and Planetary Boundaries
2021 (with Duncan French)
Earth System Law: The Juridical Dimensions of Earth System Governance
in: Earth System Governance, 2019 (with Rakhyun E. Kim)
The Anthropocene, Earth System Vulnerability and Socio-ecological Injustice in an Age of Human Rights
in: Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, 2019
Rethinking Global Environmental Law and Governance in the Anthropocene
in: Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law, 2014
Global Environmental Constitutionalism in the Anthropocene, 2016
LATEST
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internal event
Tipping Elements: A New Constitution for Law and Governance in the Anthropocene?
–A workshop by the program 'Governing the Planetary Commons' exploring whether the tipping elements could function as a new "constitution" for law and governance in the Anthropocene.
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internal event
Imagining the International Seabed Authority (ISA) as a Planetary Institution for the Seabed as a Commons
–A workshop by our programs Reclaiming Common Wealth and Governing the Planetary Commons
Isabel Feichtner | Louis Kotzé | Frederic Hanusch | Governing the Planetary Commons | Reclaiming Common Wealth | Events |
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essay
The Commons of the AnthropoceneIn a paper just published in PNAS, an interdisciplinary team of natural and social scientists outline how humanity could stabilise the earth system on which it so urgently depends.
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event
Johan Rockström: The Planetary CommonsIntroducing a new paradigm for safeguarding earth regulation systems in the Anthropocene
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recording
Johan Rockström on Planetary CommonsIntroducing a new paradigm for safeguarding Earth-regulating systems in the Anthropocene
Louis Kotzé | Governing the Planetary Commons | Events | News |
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Press
Planetary CommonsFostering global cooperation to safeguard critical Earth system functions
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interview
The True Scale of the Crisis and the Everyday CatastropheLouis Kotzé on Local Governance.
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internal event
Governing the Planetary Commons: A Deep Dive
–This workshop by our program "Governing the Planetary Commons" facilitates a deep dive into the many complex issues arising from proclaiming and governing the planetary commons.