This special issue brings together prominent scholars to explore novel multilevel governance challenges posed by the behavior of dynamic and complex social-ecological systems. Here we expand and investigate the emerging notion of “resilience” as a perspective for understanding how societies can cope with, and develop from, disturbances and change. As the contributions to the special issue illustrate, resilience thinking in its current form contains substantial normative and conceptual difficulties for the analysis of social systems. However, a resilience approach to governance issues also shows a great deal of promise as it enables a more refined understanding of the dynamics of rapid, interlinked and multiscale change. This potential should not be underestimated as institutions and decision-makers try to deal with converging trends of global interconnectedness and increasing pressure on social-ecological systems.

Författarna till boken diskuterar och analyserar intressekonflikter, incitament, restriktioner, riskbedömningar och flernivåstyrning i kemikaliekontrollen. Syftet är inte bara att erbjuda en lättillgänglig presentation av regelverken, utan också att kritiskt granska den rättsliga kontrollen av kemikalier. Hur effektiv är den? Hur beaktas naturvetenskaplig och samhällsvetenskaplig riskinformation i kemikaliebeslut och rättstillämpning? Vilka intressen gynnas och vilka motverkas eller negligeras? Vilka möjligheter - rättigheter - har andra än tillverkare, importörer och användare att ta del av kemikalieinformation och medverka när beslut om kemikalier fattas?

Planetary and legal boundaries can only be effective if they are observed, respected and complied with. In Chapter 10, Jonas Ebbesson addresses the critical issue of compliance with planetary boundaries in international law. He shows that although the planetary boundaries have no formal status in international law, they are legally relevant. Therefore, if they obtained a more robust status in international law, though planetary boundaries would not per se create legal standards, and it would still be problematic to hold States’ performance or compliance directly against them; they would amount to objectives to be achieved and operationalised through other norms, whether rules set out in treaty law with examinable criteria for compliance, or principles of customary law. Alternatively, the planetary boundaries could influence legal concepts, principles and obligations more subtly through jurisprudence and doctrine. The chapter shows that compliance with international environmental law involves a broad range of considerations, including practical reasons for failure to comply, the legal implications of non-compliance, the institutional procedures for compliance control, and the effectiveness of compliance reviews. The main concern in this respect is whether the planetary boundaries as such can be complied with in the first place, and if not, how can compliance in relation to planetary boundaries be meaningfully examined in legal terms?

Environmental justice tends to halt at national boundaries, ignoring the correlation between environmental harm and other social factors such as race, gender and class. A more cosmopolitan notion of justice is required that considers the situation of individuals in cross-border and international contexts, argues Jonas Ebbesson.

The 1972 UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) was ahead of its time in asserting that 'Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being'. Fifty years later, at Stockholm+50, the human rights approach to environment protection has been significantly consolidated in international law and governance. The article describes and reflects on these developments from the 1972 Stockholm Conference to the 2022 Stockholm Meeting. The consolidation of the human rights approach to environment protection results from normative advances at regional and global scales, further world summits on environment and sustainable development, international treaty-making to protect the environment and human rights, international policy documents and declarations, and remarkable jurisprudential developments. In parallel, fundamental rights relating to the environment have also been recognised in numerous national constitutions and laws. While the human rights approach is not a panacea to resolve all environmental concerns, and to ascertain due concerns for non-human species and interests that are not directly linked to human well-being, it is a key to ensure that no one is left behind in the pursuit for sustainable development and prosperity.

Africa is one of three regions where international law provides for participatory rights in environmental matters through a combination of environmental treaties and human rights regimes. Compared to the legal frameworks of Europe and Latin America, the African treaty regimes are much less detailed on what the rights to access to information, public participation, and access to justice in environmental matters imply. The African Commission and Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights confirm that the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights bestow participatory rights in environmental matters to individuals and peoples, but the jurisprudence is surprisingly limited and does not clarify what these rights amount to. While the revised African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (Maputo Convention) affirms the rights to access to information, public participation, and access to justice in environmental contexts, it has no effective institutional backing, and appears as a “sleeping treaty.” For the participatory rights in the African Charter and Maputo Convention to be powerful tools to protect the environment and not “sleeping rights,” they must be invoked, claimed, and enforced in practice.

Enligt Europadomstolens praxis kan alltför snäva preskriptionstider, som i praktiken gör det omöjligt för skadelidande att hävda sina anspråk på ersättning för hälsoskada, strida mot Europakonventionens krav på rätt till rättvis rättegång. Denna praxis påverkar svensk rätt och tolkningen av preskriptionslagen. Efter att först kort ha beskrivit utvecklingen av Europadomstolens praxis på miljöområdet och analyserat dess praxis med avseende på preskription, belyser jag vilka konsekvenser Europadomstolens avgöranden får för svensk rätt.