Chairs
David Bilchitz bilchitz@gmail.com / davidb@saifac.org.za
Oumarou Narey o_narey@yahoo.com

The protection of the environment and the components that make it up has increasingly been engaged in constitutions and the jurisprudence emanating from them. The climate emergency has led to an urgency to ensure the structures of law are able adequately to respond. At the same time, constitutional law enshrines a balancing process which requires consideration of competing interests. This workshop will engage with global developments surrounding environmental protection that fall broadly within the term ‘environmental sustainability’ and focus particularly on the protection of the environment in constitutions. Of interest will be questions such as the following (this is not an exhaustive list):

• Is the concept of environmental sustainability normatively coherent or desirable?
• Has the notion of environmental sustainability concretely assisted in improving protection for the environment?
• How have courts approached balancing the protection of the environment with other interests that may conflict?
• Have alternative concepts provided a better basis for environmental protection?
• In what way can courts strengthen protection of the environment?
• Given the climate emergency, should the role of courts be bolstered in the sphere of environmental protection?