Prof. Dr. Claudio Franzius

Transnational Climate Protection Law

The project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) is related to a main research area of the Faculty of Law, the “transnationalisation of law”, and focusses on transnational climate protection law. The objective is not to describe a new sub-field of climate protection law, but changes in international, European and national law against the background of the changing role of sub-state and non-state actors in climate policy.

• A sub-project investigates to what extent the “coal phase-out” can be placed on a transnational basis. The objectives agreed upon, to attain greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050, may hardly be achieved in any other way, while it remains open in how far the companies concerned carry their own responsibility for climate protection.
• A further sub-project is concerned with new actors of climate policy and investigates sub-state units such as municipalities, but also transnational networks such as the Covenant of Mayors in the EU, as well as contributions to climate protection by the railway and postal services and the ports. Another factor is the role of banks and insurances in “divestment”.
• Under the Paris Agreement, control mechanisms are changing. This concerns the activation of control by civil society, but also the judiciary as a climate actor. A third sub-project thus compares different litigation activities and investigates the question in how far the opportunities to bring individual and class actions can be strengthened in “climate litigation”.

The main research question is to what extent the transnationalisation of climate protection law under the Paris Agreement promises a path to achieve the transformation of legal, political and economic structures deemed necessary to reach the set targets. Workshops will be organised separately for the individual sub-projects. An overview of the subject matter of the project can be found in the articles published in the special issue of Zeitschrift für Umweltrecht (ZUR 2018, 641-690), based on a conference organised by the FEU in May 2018 in Bremen. It is also discussed in Claudio Franzius, Das Paris-Abkommen zum Klimaschutz: Auf dem Weg zum transnationalen Klimaschutzrecht?, ZUR 2017, 515-524.

It is the objective of the project to contribute to the evolvement of the transnational perspective in climate protection law and to demonstrate in how far a transnational development of the legal foundations of climate protection would prove useful. It should become clear, at the end, what is implied by a “transnational” understanding of the law. Insofar, the project has strong references to foundations of law, see Claudio Franzius, Recht und Politik in der transnationalen Konstellation, 2014.

Competence Network „Future Challenges of Environmental Law“

Within the framework of the joint project „Future Challenges of Environmental Law“ (KomUR), the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) funds 14 Ph.D. theses in the field of environmental law at six German universities between 2020 and 2022 as well as the networking of German environmental law research in Germany and at international level through conferences, workshops, research stays and publications.

The KomUR is concerned with the challenges of the future facing environmental law with regard to objectives of sustainability and investigates how environmental law can be developed further in order to help achieve these objectives.

The coordinating partner of the project is the UFZ Department Environmental and Planning Law with the project leaders Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Köck and Dr. Moritz Reese. Partners of the project are the University of Bremen (Prof. Dr. Claudio Franzius), the FU Berlin (Prof. Dr. Christian Calliess) and the Universities Bonn (Prof. Dr. Dr. Wolfgang Durner), Leipzig (Prof. Dr. Kurt Faßbender), Münster (Prof. Dr. Sabine Schlacke) and Osnabrück (Prof. Dr. Pascale Cancik).

Further information can be found on the Homepage of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.

Infrastrukturen vernetzen Menschen, Regionen und Wirtschaftsräume. Sie unterliegen einem ständigen Wandel. Daraus ergeben sich Fragestellungen und Chancen, denen mit umweltverträglichen, nachhaltigen und klimaschützenden Lösungen zu begegnen ist.

Infrastructures connect people, regions and economic areas. They are subject to constant change. The resulting problems and opportunities require environmentally compatible, sustainable and climate-protecting solutions. Against this background, the FEU together with Bremen law firm BBG and Partners founded the Association for Infrastructure Law (VIR) in 2009.

Homepage of the Association

Structural issues of the European Union

Limits to European integration: challenges for law and politics

Models for parliamentarianism in he 21st century: new orders of law and politics

The reinvention of Europe. Importance and content of narratives of European integration.

The future of European democracy

• No. 19/2025 Climate protection law: a snapshot

• No. 18/2024 The EU's deregulation of NGT plants

• No. 17/2024 European constitutional control – Art. 7 TFEU

• No. 16/2024 Climate Protection before the European Court of Human Rights: Mapping options for evolutive steps

• No. 15/2023 CDR technologies on a pathway to climate neutrality

• No. 14/2023 Legal options of individual states for unilateral protection of global environmental goods

• No. 13/2023 Standing before the EU General Court: moving from distinctive to substantial concern

• No. 12/2022 European trust? An outline

• No. 11/2021 The concept of advance interference-like effects

• No. 10/2021 The role of courts in climate protection law

• No. 9/2020 Do we need a constitutional amendment for more environmental protection?

• No. 8/2020 Do we need a general administrative law?

• No. 7/2020 Public Trust Doctrine in Comparative Environmental Law

• No. 6/2018 Regime on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing

• No. 5/2018 The Role of Courts and Tribunals in Environmental Protection (The Polish experiences)

• No. 4/2017 Process modelling approaches of power supply planning

• No. 3/2017 The Paris Agreement on climate protection as a change of paradigm in international environmental law

• No. 2/2017 Narrative for Europe

• No. 1/2017 Planning law and regulatory law