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Virtual Book Launch: Droit constitutionnel de l’environnement

Please join the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment, the International Council of Environmental Law and Widener University Delaware Law School for the virtual launch of  Droit constitutionnel de l’environnement, edited by Marie-Anne Cohendet. The launch will take place on 14 October at 1pm EDT/7pm CEST. You can register in advance for the launch here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the launch.

Maria-Anne Cohendet will be in conversation with contributors Professor James May, Professor Michel Prieur and Professor Erin Daly.

This event will be in English and French.

About the Book:

(English below):

Le droit constitutionnel de l’environnement est en plein essor. L’avènement de la démocratie a permis l’adoption de dispositions constitutionnelles relatives à la protection de l’environnement dans de nombreux pays. Mais le recul de la démocratie implique aussi souvent une régression du contenu ou de l’application de ces dispositions. Comment perfectionner l’organisation des institutions pour répondre à l’urgence climatique et à la dégradation massive de la biodiversité ? La plupart des constitutions du monde contiennent désormais des dispositions relatives à la protection de l’environnement. Quel est leur contenu ? Sont-elles efficaces ? Sont-elles respectées par les juges (constitutionnel, administratif et judiciaire), par les gouvernants et par chacun de nous ? De nombreux auteurs venus des quatre coins de la planète se sont réunis afin d’approfondir ces questions. Leurs réflexions sont très précieuses pour renforcer le respect des normes fondamentales adoptées par le peuple.

Constitutional environmental law is flourishing. The advent of democracy in many countries has opened the way for the adoption of constitutional provisions relating to the protection of the environment. But the decline of democracy also often implies a regression in the content or application of these provisions. What are the best ways to improve how institutions respond to the climate emergency and the massive degradation of biodiversity? Most of the world’s constitutions now contain provisions relating to the protection of the environment. What is their content? Are they effective? Are they respected by constitutional, administrative or civil judges? By governments, and by each of us? More than 25 experts from around the world have come together to explore these questions. Their valuable reflections strengthen respect for the fundamental norms adopted by people to advance constitutional protection of the environment.

About the Editor:

(English below)

Marie-Anne Cohendet est professeure de droit public à l’Ecole de droit de la Sorbonne. Elle a dirigé le département de droit public de l’Ecole doctorale de droit de la Sorbonne et codirige actuellement les masters 1 et 2 de droit de l’environnement. Elle est l’autrice et la co-autrice de nombreux ouvrages et articles de droit constitutionnel et de droit de l’environnement, parmi lesquels: Droit constitutionnel de l’environnement, M.-A. Cohendet (dir.) Ed. Mare et Martin, 2021; Droit constitutionnel, éd. LGDJ-Lextenso, coll. Cours, 5ème éd. 2021; La pensée indisciplinée de la démocratie écologique, L. Blondiaux, D. Bourg, M.-A. Cohendet, J.-M. Fourniau (dir.) à par. 2021; Droit de l’environnement, M. Prieur, J. Bétaille, M.-A. Cohendet, H. Delzangles, J. Makowiak et P. Steichen, précis Dalloz, 8ème éd. 2019; Le Référendum d’Initiative Citoyenne délibératif, avec L. Blondiaux, M. Fleury, B. François, J. Lang, J.-F. Laslier, Q. Sauzay, F. Sawicki, Terra Nova, février 2019.

Marie-Anne Cohendet is a professor of public law at the Sorbonne Law School. She headed the public law department of the Doctoral Programme at the Sorbonne and currently co-directs Masters 1 and 2 students in environmental law. She is the author and co-author of numerous books and articles on constitutional law and environmental law, including: Constitutional Environmental Law, M.-A. Cohendet (dir.) Ed. Mare and Martin, 2021; Constitutional Law, ed. LGDJ-Lextenso, coll. Cours, 5th ed. 2021; The Undisciplined Thought of Ecological Democracy, L. Blondiaux, D. Bourg, M.-A. Cohendet, J.-M. Fourniau (eds.) (forthcoming 2021); Environmental Law, M. Prieur, J. Bétaille, M.-A. Cohendet, H. Delzangles, J. Makowiak and P. Steichen, precise Dalloz, 8th ed. 2019; The Deliberative Citizen Initiative Referendum, with L. Blondiaux, M. Fleury, B. François, J. Lang, J.-F. Laslier, Q. Sauzay, F. Sawicki, Terra Nova, February 2019.

Astrid Milena Bernal

By Astrid Milena Bernal

Astrid Milena Bernal Rubio is a Colombian environmental lawyer and a PhD-Law student at the University of Melbourne - Climate Futures Center. Formerly LL.M student at Pennsylvania State University (concentrations in International Law and Energy and Environmental Law). She is also a lawyer from the Universidad Católica de Colombia, a Magister in Environmental Law from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Specialist in human rights and critical legal studies from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) Latin American School of Public Policy- ELAP.

As part of the technical team of GFLAC (climate finance group for Latin America and the Caribbean), she supported the creation of the MRV system (monitoring, reporting and verification) for climate finance in Colombia. In addition, she has been a consultant for the WRI (World Resources Institute) and The Access Initiative (TAI), working as the National researcher for the Environmental Democracy Index (EDI). Also, she has worked as a consultant for AVINA Foundation, The Bogotá’s drainage and sewerage company (EAAB), Green Faith (NY based NGO), Brighter Green (NY based NGO) and worked as Campaign coordinator against unsustainable livestock production at the Global Forest Coalition. Astrid has worked as a lawyer and researcher on issues associated with public participation, access to information, forests, carbon markets, Just Energy transition and rights of indigenous peoples and rural communities in Colombia.

Astrid was a volunteer for the Network for Environmental Justice in Colombia and promoted the creation and growth of the climate justice division at the Environment and Society Association (AAS) of Colombia. Astrid was a senior research coordinator in a joint research project with UNICEF to contribute to the fulfilment of the SDGs (6), focusing its work on guaranteeing the rights of access to sanitation for rural, indigenous and Afro-descendant populations in Colombia. She is also part of the founders of the Colombian NGO- CAMBIUM (Climate, Environment and Research-Action Uniting Worlds). This organization aims to, directly and indirectly, influence processes carried out by civil society and decision-makers related to climate change.

Astrid also supported the work of Pivot Point and the CLARA group (Climate, Land, Ambition and Rights Alliance), promoting the understanding and participation of CSOs to ensure higher ambition of NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) in Spanish speakers countries through the website Ndcdemipueblo.org.

Astrid was a research assistant at Penn State University identifying how different kinds of transboundary river basin organizations have written and used dispute resolution mechanisms in both the bilateral agreements between the US, Mexico and Canada (NAFTA-USMCA) and the Autonomous Binational Authority of the Basin of Lake Titicaca (Bolivia, Peru).

Astrid was one of the members of the core team in the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment (GNHRE), and she is part of the global network of environmental lawyers (ELAW). In her free time, she collaborates as a volunteer for The Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition- CAIR coalition.