About us
The Centre for Environmental Law and Policy (CELP), formerly the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ), was founded in 2016 to bring together scholars in the School of Law and Politics working on the legal and political dimensions of environmental degradation. This institutional-level combination of law and politics enables us to pursue original research that challenges disciplinary boundaries and delves into a wide variety of environmental justice considerations. Please see our blog and publication pages for a more detailed overview of our research.
As well as research, our members contribute to the School’s extensive undergraduate and postgraduate teaching provision in environmental law and politics, and we welcome student membership and participation. Our PhD students are particularly valued members and we benefit from their contribution to our events and the development of the Centre.
We are particularly excited to announce the launch of our Student Division of the Centre for Environmental Law and Policy (CELP). The Student Division was established by postgraduate researcher Jade Jones in October 2022. The division is led by Jade Jones alongside a Student Steering Committee. Membership consists of undergraduate and taught postgraduate students from school of Law&Politics in various years of study. The Student Division meets regularly every month to collaborate on group projects, and hosts biannual conferences for both the student members and the wider CELP network to present their research.
Our Ethos
We do not simply want to discuss and theorise environmental justice, we want to practice it. As such, we support the Cardiff Environmental Law Foundation Clinic, which advises the public on how to use law to protect the environment. In order to reduce the environmental impact of our activities, we always try to host our speakers via Skype or Zoom and offer locally sourced produce served on re-usable materials.
Our Events
The Centre hosts and supports a range of events, including:
- Thought-in-Progress (TIP) Series A monthly meeting where the speaker tests out new ideas for a project and/or paper.
- Reading Group – Decolonising the Anthropocene: This is a multi-disciplinary reading group co-hosted with Cardiff Environment Cultures in the English Department. We use our monthly gathering to explore texts that help us to make sense of and challenge knowledge, scales and relations of global environmental degradation.
- Workshops and conferences: We facilitate and support a range of staff and student events. You can get a flavour of some of these different events here.
- Student Division of CELP conferences / monthly meetings: The Student Division hosts an annual winter conference and student spring symposium, as well as collaborating with others to appear at various speaking events. The Student Division also holds regular monthly meetings to collaborate on projects and discuss recent developments in environmental law and policy, please contact Jade Jones (JonesJC8@cardiff.ac.uk) if you are a student and would be interested in participating.
If you are interested in joining the group or would like to present your research to the group, please Ben Pontin (pontinb@cardiff.ac.uk).
Our Members
Below is a list of our members and their core environmental concerns and research interests:
Co-directors
European Union environmental politics; International climate change negotiations; Global biofuels policies.
Coastal habitats; Climate change; Fisheries; Human Rights and the Environment; Law of the Sea; Marine conservation; Marine mammals; Migratory species; Polar law; Wildlife law.
Staff members
Climate change; Environmental law; Environmental law history; Nature conservation; Politics of environmental law.
Ecological justice; Environmental justice; Expertise; Legitimacy; Participatory governance; New materialisms; Rationality.
Biodiversity; Climate change; Chemicals; Waste; Negotiations; Non-state governance; Framing; Regime complexity.
Biodiversity loss; Environmental liability; Financial security for environmental liabilities and responsibilities; Future of environmental and nature conservation law.
Critical legal theory; Environmental and climate justice/injustice; Human rights and environment; Legal subjectivity; Materiality; Vulnerability.
Comparative political thought; Decolonial and postcolonial theories and methods.
Biotechnologies; Environmental crime; European Union regulation; International environmental law; Marine species conservation; Natural resources management; Indigenous peoples’ rights.
Agriculture; Animal welfare; Food; Regulation of new technologies (like hydraulic fracturing and agricultural biotechnologies); Rural development; Trade.
Climate change mitigation; Global environmental politics; EU climate change action; Discourse theory; Discourse analysis; Lacanian discourse analysis.
Research fellows
Key words: Climate change; Emission regulation; Electro-mobility; Instrumental choices; Leapfrogging; Decarbonising transportation; Non-motorised transport.
Project title: Leapfrogging to low-carbon transport modes and non-motorised transport in Ethiopia.
Postgraduate student members
Marine conservation; Polar Law; Law of the Sea; International Environmental Law and Human Rights; International Wildlife Law; Indigenous Peoples rights; Climate change.
Thesis: A case for a pan-Arctic network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) – Balancing environmental stewardship against social equity in a changing climate.
Law of the sea; Public international law; Military activities and security concerns
Thesis: Military activities in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the Limits of Freedom of Navigation.
Militarization of space; long-term sustainability; space mission safety.
Thesis: UN Space security policy.