Yaffa Epstein

Uppsala University | UU · Faculty of Law

Laws aimed at preventing harm to the environment appear to be insufficient to halt or reverse environmental decline. In a Perspective, the authors highlight recent efforts to address this issue by recognizing intrinsic rights of nature. Going beyond the rights for individuals that animal rights advocates call for, the rights of nature proponents fo...

This article examines three constitutional environmental provisions and how they have been applied by European courts in three climate cases from Norway, Germany and France. In each of these cases, directive principles, that is, constitutionally required state obligations to protect social values, generally by enacting legislation, played a key rol...

The central argument of this article is that European Union law can be interpreted to support the current existence of legal rights for animals and nature. While these rights have not been explicitly recognized in law, the prerequisites for doing so already exist in the EU legal order. The theoretical justifications for the protection of animals an...

*Message me if you would like a copy of the full text* We review the use of science by lawmakers and courts in implementing or rejecting legal rights for nature in Ecuador, India, the United States, and other jurisdictions where some type of rights of nature have been recognized in the legal system. We then use the “right to evolve” to exemplify ho...

This article examines the effectiveness, legitimacy, and fairness of heritage conservation outcomes under the 1972 World Heritage Convention (1972 WHC), with a focus on recognising and respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples in heritage nomination, protection, and management. Examining conflicts surrounding World Heritage sites in Kenya and Swe...

This is a letter with the following text: The recovery of the wolf in Europe is one of the rare conservation successes on the continent (1). Instrumental to this recovery has been the strict legal protection of wolves throughout most of their range under Annex IV of the Habitats Directive (2). Strict protection has prevented anti- conservation...

Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity are finalizing a new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to more effectively guide efforts by the world's nations to address global loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Each party is required to mainstream the new framework and its component targets into national conservation strategies. To...

Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity are finalizing a new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to more effectively guide efforts by the world’s nations to address global loss of biodiversity and safeguard nature’s contributions to people. Each party is required to mainstream these new targets into national conservation strategies. To da...

Actions potentially harmful to the environment that are otherwise illegal are sometimes permitted in cases of emergency. How to define an emergency can therefore be both controversial and highly consequential. In this article, we explore one such contemporary controversy: when the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, banned in the EU, can nevertheless...

The published version is now available open access at https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01703-5

A growing number of jurisdictions throughout the world have recognized some type of legal rights of nature. This jurisprudential trend has thus far made few inroads in Europe. However, its apparent absence is misleading. In this article we argue that, explicit or not, nature as protected by European Union (EU) law already has certain legal right...

The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) largely sided with a small Finnish nature protection organization, Tapiola, in a recent judgment that interpreted limitations on the deliberate killing of wolves. Tapiola was able to utilize EU law to bring about both national compliance with EU species protection law and a legal decision that will impact the h...

A rich diversity of plant and animal life is one of the sixteen environmental goals Swedish environmental law and policy aims to achieve. The EU also seeks to protect biodiversity through its Biodiversity Strategy. To these shared ends, certain plant and animal species are protected by the Swedish Environmental Code and its pursuant Species Protect...

In the European Union (EU), the Habitats Directive bans the killing of strictly protected animal species. The killing of individual animals may nevertheless be allowed when there is no satisfactory alternative and doing so would not be detrimental to the maintenance of species populations at favorable conservation status for one of five enumerated...

Whether or under what circumstances the hunting of species listed as strictly protected in the Habitats Directive’s Annex IV can be allowed has been the subject of extensive controversy and litigation in several Member States. Finland has asked the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on several questions, the answers to which will have wide-r...

This article compares the use of litigation to enforce species protection law in the European Union (EU) with that of the United States (US). Recent legal disputes over wolf hunting on both continents offer useful case studies. Focusing on three aspects of litigation – namely, (i) against whom claims are brought, (ii) who can bring claims, and (iii...

This "article" is a "correspondence" with the following text: "Conservation triage, the prioritization of conservation efforts by explicit economic accounting, may not be used to determine listing decisions under the US Endangered Species Act of 1973. This could change with the proposed US H.R.717 Listing Reform Act that has been submitted to Con...

The role of international legal instruments in biodiversity conservation has until now received relatively little attention in the conservation literature. Nevertheless, with their long-term, legally binding commitments on a transboundary scale, such instruments can be important, sometimes indispensable, implements in the conservation toolbox. Afte...

This dissertation examines how eco-knowledge intersects with the changes to EU legal cultures and practices known as Eurolegalism. This conjunction has created a mechanism for the extension of EU law in the Member States even in the face of a weakened EU. Through a portfolio of six articles, controversies over the protection of wolves in Sweden ar...

*Due to restrictions, this is the author's version. I am happy to email the published version if you do not have access.* Wolves are protected by law in both the United States and European Union. These laws restrict the harming or killing of individual members of protected species, but allow it in selective circumstances, such as when killing som...

The mounting threats posed to the global environment by harmful human activities cannot be averted without effective legislation controlling those activities. However, the environmental laws designed for this purpose are themselves under global attack. Because it is binding and enforceable, legislation is a unique and essential instrument in the ov...

The European Commission has finally buried its controversial plan to revise the EU's biodiversity conservation legislation in order to make it more "business-friendly". Such a revision would have meant a fatal setback for European wildlife conservation. The 1979 Birds Directive and the 1992 Habitats Directive set out strict, enforceable obligations...

The growing complexity and global nature of wildlife poaching threaten the survival of many species worldwide and are outpacing conservation efforts. Here, we reviewed proximal and distal factors, both social and ecological, driving illegal killing or poaching of large carnivores at sites where it can potentially occur. Through this review, we deve...

The Habitats Directive and Endangered Species Act (ESA) are the primary legal instruments governing species protection in the EU and US, respectively. These two legal regimes locate the responsibility for their implementation, administration, and enforcement at different levels of government, or governance. The division of responsibility between th...

One of the key issues is the current controversy over the hunting of wolves in Sweden is whether the wolf population has reached favourable conservation status (FCS). FCS is a legal concept, created and defined in law, but like many legal concepts within environmental law, can only be understood by reference to ecological concepts such as species v...

Legislation for the preservation of biodiversity has been instrumental to the recovery of multiple species and habitats. The European Habitats Directive 92/92/EEC is one of the strongest legal tools in nature conservation. This Directive seeks to achieve its biodiversity goals by requiring EU Member States to take measures to reach or maintain Favo...

Controversy continues over the return of the wolf to the Swedish landscape. Decisions to allow the licensed hunting of Sweden’s fragile wolf population in violation of the EU’s Habitats Directive have repeatedly been quashed by the Swedish administrative courts. In response, the law was changed: it is no longer possible to appeal those decisions to...

As widely known, there is an ongoing infringement proceeding in the European Commission on Swedish wolf-hunting policy, initiated in early 2010 by four environmental NGOs. They claimed that Swedish ‘license hunting’ breached obligations under the EU’s Habitats Directive. Following certain exchanges in 2010, the European Commission sent a formal not...

The Bern Convention of the Council of Europe and the European Union’s Habitats Directive are the primary legal instruments driving species protection in Europe. The Habitats Directive implements the Bern Convention in the EU. While the Habitats Directive has stronger enforcement mechanisms than the Bern Convention, it covers a smaller geographical...

The protection of biodiversity, like many other environmental goals, transcends political boundaries. This is particularly true regarding large carnivores, such as wolves, which typically require a relatively low population density and a range that often extends hundreds of kilometers across many legal borders. The two primary legal instruments pro...

The Stockholm Administrative Court recently ruled that Sweden’s wolf management policies are incompatible with the Habitats Directive. These policies are also the subject of an on-going infringement proceeding by the European Commission. The administrative court’s decision has been appealed. This case is significant for two reasons. First, it inter...

This article examines the development of statutory and common law regulating the emission of smoke during the American Progressive Era. During this period, smoke went from being considered a symbol of economic prosperity to being considered a public nuisance that hindered public health and urban growth. The legal developments are set in their conte...

The Aarhus Convention requires that its parties make available to the public procedures that “provide adequate and effective remedies, including injunctive relief as appropriate, and [are] fair, equitable, timely and not prohibitively expensive.” In order to meet this requirement, it is imperative that procedures provide a means to actually prevent...