Abstract: In the face of today’s environmental challenges, the contributors to this book—lawyers and economists—propose a bold yet pragmatic transformation of economic law. Their goal is to turn these disciplines into powerful tools for accelerating the ecological transition, while taking care not to sacrifice economic efficiency and employment in the process. Changes have already taken place, but they remain too superficial or incomplete. More systematic and structural transformations are required so that the economy—whose fundamental role in contemporary societies can no longer be ignored—can become a lever and accelerator of the ecological transition. Alongside the significant discussions that have taken place in recent decades regarding the reorganization of the state in response to the collapse of ecosystems, a discussion was therefore needed on the ecological transformation of the economy. Bringing about a “law-based economy” today—just as we once built a rule of law—requires a genuine ecological shift in economic law, which entails changes across a wide range of disciplines, from public law (public procurement, international trade and investment law, public finance, etc.) to private law (corporate law, financial law, competition law, labor law, insolvency law, etc.). This change, both urgent and necessary, is justified given the depletion of natural resources and the exorbitant cost of ecosystem degradation. It also finds a solid foundation in the principles of environmental law (integration, sustainable development, the precautionary principle, and the right to information and public participation, among others). To accelerate the ecological transition, this book proposes 79 concrete reforms aimed at rethinking corporate governance and adapting the methods of economic law.
This report was coordinated by Aude-Solveig Epstein, Associate Professor of Law at Paris Nanterre University and Visiting Associate Professor at NYU Abu Dhabi (CEDCACE/SAFIR).
The following people contributed to this article:
-
- Jennifer Bardy (Associate Professor of Law at the University of Nice Côte d’Azur)
-
- Juliette Camy(Ph.D. in Law)
-
- Arnaud Casado (Associate Professor of Law at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University)
-
- Manon Desbat(Ph.D. candidate and postdoctoral researcher at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University)
-
- Marie-Alice Chardeaux(Associate Professor of Law at the University of Paris-Est Créteil)
-
- Florian Couveinhes-Matsumoto(Associate Professor of Law at the École Normale Supérieure)
-
- Michel Cardona(Associate Expert at I4CE, Institute for Climate Economics)
-
- Jean-Luc Gaffard(Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Nice Côte d’Azur)
-
- Gilles J. Martin(Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Nice Côte d’Azur)
-
- Eva Mouial-Bassilana(Professor of Law at the University of Nice Côte d’Azur)
-
- Irina Parachkévova-Racine(Professor of Law at the University of Nice Côte d’Azur)
-
- Jean-Philippe Robé(Doctor of Law, member of the Paris and New York bars, and lecturer at the Sciences Po Paris Law School)
-
- Judith Rochfeld(Professor of Law at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University)
-
- Laurence Scialom(Professor of Economics at Paris Nanterre University)
-
- Tatiana Sachs(Professor of Law at the University of Paris Nanterre)
The following also contributed to its design:
-
- Walid Chaiehloudj(Professor of Law at the University of Nice Côte d’Azur)
-
- Arnaud de Nanteuil(Professor of Law at the University of Paris-Est Créteil)
-
- Isabelle Doussan(Research Director at INRAe)
-
- Sophie Grosbon(Associate Professor of Law at Paris Nanterre University)
-
- Marie-Angèle Hermitte(Retired Research Director at the CNRS)
-
- Maxime Lassalle(Associate Professor of Law at the University of Burgundy)
-
- Frédéric Marty(Research Fellow at the CNRS)
-
- Béatrice Parance(Professor of Law at Paris Dauphine University)
-
- Jérôme Porta(Professor of Law at the University of Bordeaux)
-
- Rémi Radiguet(Associate Professor of Law at the University of Réunion)
-
- David Robine(Professor of Law at the University of Bordeaux)
-
- Jean-Philippe Tonneau(Ph.D. in Sociology)
-
- Cyril Wolmark (Professor of Law at the University of Paris Nanterre)