Klaus Bosselmann: an activist for Earth and its inhabitants

Professor Klaus Bosselmann’s life blooms with many stories.

The German-born activist and academic, who joined the Faculty of Law in 1988, was recognised this year for his world leadership in research and scholarship when he was named a Royal Society Te Apārangi fellow.

The impact of his work on ecological legal theory, rights of nature, environmental integrity, eco-constitutionalism, the Earth Charter and legal developments internationally and in New Zealand is widely acknowledged.

Over almost 35 years with Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland his research has explored environmental law and governance, with a particular interest in sustainability ethics relating to climate change, biodiversity, justice, human rights and international law. He teaches global environmental law at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Interestingly, Klaus’s entry into academia stemmed from the day he was forced to resign as a judge. But let’s start from the beginning.

Growing up in Northern Germany’s countryside on a property named Birdsong, surrounded by Brothers Grimm-esque forests and woken daily to a resounding dawn chorus, you’d imagine Klaus’s drive to protect the Earth came early. But those formative years were more about developing a sense of connectedness to his surroundings.

“Growing up in the forest, surrounded by wildlife, shaped a sense that this is our world, this is my world,” he says.

His realisation that the popular way of thinking of human life as being above and separate from nature and animals, and the impact that was having, came later and was inspired by several influential people, including philosophers Ernst Bloch and Hans Jonas and Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer.

“One of Schweitzer’s essays that shaped me was the one in which he said, ‘The ethics of reverence for life makes no distinction between higher and lower, more precious and less precious lives,’” says Klaus. “His work highlighted a very clear concept, and his ethical plea was the very simple sentence: ‘I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live.’”

After leaving high school, Klaus studied at the University of Tübingen and then the Free University of Berlin. His studies began in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and his generation was at the forefront of the anti-nuclear movement.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, Klaus says he didn’t see nature in decline or notice the impacts of climate change as we do now, but much of the literature he consumed during his studies gave him insight into what was slowly taking place. He took papers in environmental science, sociology, political theory, political philosophy and law, and eventually specialised in law. His doctorate explored the constitutional history of Germany, and he sought to understand why the German nation was less influenced by French revolutionary ideas than other European countries.

Aged 27, soon after completing his second legal state examination, Klaus was appointed as a judge.

“It was a very different process to what we have here; it consisted of five years of university studies, then two years of practice,” he says.

He was immediately seconded to the Federal Administrative Court of Germany, where he worked as an assistant judge and came to the realisation that ethically, he opposed certain aspects of the system.

“I was writing legal opinions and analysis for court cases, and my specialty was nuclear law. Being anti-nuclear, I wanted to persuade the highest court that a far more thorough analysis was needed in terms of the risks involved in nuclear power.

“I learned through internal communications with these judges that I shouldn’t be too ambitious. And I will never forget being told, ‘We are not here as judges to correct the mistakes the federal government has made.’”

Klaus considered this viewpoint fundamentally wrong. He wrote an article in a leading journal Kritische Justiz (Critical Justice), blaming Germany’s highest judges for being biased and unaware of the full damage nuclear power could cause.

“I was sort of attacking them, not ad personam, but making my argument clear: this violates the fundamental principles of the rule of law if they just take the view that we’re not there to correct those kinds of [federal government] mistakes. This article was the end of my career as a judge because the president of the Federal Court called me into his office and told me I had a choice: either he instigates disciplinary measures against me or I volunteer to resign, which I did.”

And so came Klaus’s entry into academia. It was one action amid many over the years that demonstrated his determination to stand up for the protection of the Earth and its inhabitants.

“Entering academia, I realised this is an area where I can freely express my views. It was liberating, and I have thoroughly enjoyed this job ever since. I’m still somewhat embarrassed to get paid for doing something I enjoy doing – learning and expressing my views on things, in this case, environmental issues.”

Klaus doesn’t always have positive views about academic institutions, however. He believes teaching and research have been affected by the transition of many universities into a business style of operating.

“Wilhelm von Humboldt, the founder of the University of Berlin, shaped the modern idea of universities. The Humboldt philosophy of the university is the unity of research and teaching, and it’s about teaching in areas in which you are an absolute expert.”

To Klaus, this philosophy epitomises ultimate academic freedom in that you’re not being told what to teach, but instead defining your own scholarship.

“At many universities, including Auckland, academics are required to teach courses they’re not experts in. There’s this compulsory element that we are all expected to teach some papers and accept it. There has also been this incremental build-up of bureaucracy and administration and a top-down approach. I argue that universities are failing if we are expected to do more and more for less and less.”

Klaus first visited New Zealand in 1981 and returned in 1985 for a visiting lectureship in the University’s Faculty of Law.

When he was back living in Germany in 1988, a colleague from Auckland’s Law faculty called and asked Klaus if he would consider applying for a position in environmental law.

“I got the job initially thinking I would just stay here for a few years. I had just been made a full professor in Berlin and had my career mapped out, but it wasn’t to be.”

Klaus moved to Waiheke, an island famed for its activists, artists and environmentalists, where he had, on a whim, bought a little bach for $80,000 during one of his earlier trips to New Zealand.

In 1990, he met his partner Prue Taylor at a conference in Wellington where he was giving a talk on ecology, ethics and law. Prue was working on her masters degree in the same area and approached him after his talk. She said she felt like he had stepped inside her head because their research and concepts were so similar. She also criticised Klaus for buttering up to women.

“I was part of the Green movement in Germany, and I was also part of the feminist movement, and for me, there was never a difference between green thinking and feminism,” he says. “So that was part of why my talk at Victoria University had praise for women. Prue didn’t like it or understand where I was coming from at the time, but we became good friends.”

Klaus and Prue moved in together, and Prue started working at the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture and Planning, where she also teaches environmental law. The two travel often and have raised two children together on Waiheke Island.

At 72, Klaus has led a life that has had a positive impact on people and the planet, and he’s not slowing down.

This year he’s assisting the UN Secretary-General and the UN General Assembly with preparations for the Summit of the Future in September 2024 and is advising the German government on ways to include ecological human rights in the constitution. He also coordinates a German-New Zealand academic exchange programme comparing the rights of nature. Above all, Klaus advocates Earth trusteeship as a fundamental obligation of states and citizens.

“Individually, we all have the right to flourish. We should enjoy our lives, but we’re not alone; the future is not abstract,” he says. “What we experience in the future is being decided on a daily basis today.”

By Sophie Boladeras