Towards a ‘sustainable rule of law’ for the circular economy

Presentation by Eléonore Maitre-Ekern, Postdoctoral Researcher, Futuring Nordics project.

The Futuring Nordics project aims to investigate the potential of Nordic business models in the implementation of the SDGs within planetary boundaries. As part of this project, my postdoctoral research shall explore the sustainability of the circular economy (for products) as well as the policy and legal framework to enable and promote sustainable circular business models in the Nordic countries.

Achieving ‘circularity’ is not as such a guarantee of achieving sustainability, and thus it is important to establish the conditions in which a circular economy can be truly sustainable. In the Circular Action Plan released in March of this year, the European Commission puts forward the need to establish ‘sustainability principles’ for the purpose of establishing ‘a strong and coherent product policy framework that will make sustainable products’.

In the first phase of my research, I am to contribute to that discussion by exploring and developing a ‘sustainable rule of law’ for the circular economy. Among the various relevant sustainability principles, I intend to focus notably on the precautionary principle, which should arguably form the basis of any circular economy policies.

Published May 19, 2020 1:02 PM - Last modified Nov. 11, 2020 3:06 PM