The nation-state’s responsibility for protecting the global commons (oceans, atmosphere, Antarctica)

        Professor Klaus Bosselmann, Director of the New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law (NZCEL) and Lucy Stroud, Doctoral Candidate, NZCEL member, Faculty of Law.

The Planetary Integrity Project is a collaboration between world-leading environmental lawyers to develop legal tools for the Anthropocene era, to ensure humanity can live in a ‘safe operating space’ within the planet’s boundaries. The results will be presented to the United Nations in 2020. This project is coordinated by the New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law at the University of Auckland, which provides leading-edge research and training for sustainability law and governance.

The NZCEL has initiated a global network of environmental law scholars, the Ecological Law and Governance Association, and an Earth Trusteeship Council has been proposed to ensure UN member states act in the interest of the global commons and future generations.

When, in 2020, the UN reviews progress on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, we’ll have the chance to build coherence between the goals and establish the Earth Trusteeship Council to oversee the process.