Towards the Environmental Minimum - Environmental Protection through Human Rights - Dr Stefan Theil

Dr Stefan Theil

Stefan is the John Thornley Fellow in Law at Sidney Sussex College. He completed his first degree in law at the University of Bayreuth (2011) in Germany. After brief stints working for a commercial law firm in Munich and for the Research Services of the German Bundestag in Berlin, Stefan earned an LL.M. from University College London (2013). Inspired to pursue a career in academia, he completed his doctoral work at the University of Cambridge (2018) and was the inaugural Research Fellow in Civil and Political Rights at Bonavero Institute, University of Oxford (2017-2021). You can follow Stefan on twitter and discover his papers on ResearchGate.

Towards the Environmental Minimum - Environmental Protection through Human Rights (2021)

Book Blurb: Pervasive environmental harm that disproportionately impacts vulnerable members of society is left largely unregulated across the globe despite existing legal commitments to human rights and environmental protection in many states. To address this shortcoming, Stefan Theil proposes a new normative framework for environmental protection through human rights law. In clear and accessible prose, he demonstrates how such a human rights-based approach can strengthen environmental protection without requiring radical departures from established protection regimes and legal principles. The environmental minimum developed in the book translates the general and abstract commitments of states into specific and practical measures that protect the environment. The framework develops the doctrine of international, regional, and domestic courts, analysed through an innovative approach that improves contextual awareness. This book is thus a valuable resource for lawyers, social scientists, political theorists, environmental and human rights advocates.

What made you write on this topic?

I was convinced that any principled commitment to human rights and environmental protection required fundamental legal safeguards but realised the abstract provisions in domestic and international law often failed to promote significant improvements. Even flagship initiatives like the Sustainable Development Goals remained largely symbolic. Environmental regulation continues to be deferential to economic interests, and courts often awkwardly shoehorn limited protection into existing human rights protection regimes. My suspicion was that we could benefit from a framework that translates abstract commitments into practical improvements that benefit environmental protection – both through principled regulation and consistent human rights-based review through courts.

How long did it take to produce your book from initial conception to publication?

I had very early thoughts and discussions about the thesis during my LL.M at University College London in 2013. Right up until the final stages of the book publishing process in 2021 there was probably never a point where everything was clearly ‘finished’. I constantly revise and edit and would probably find plenty of things to change even now that publication is imminent. 

What is the most difficult part about writing for you?

A blank sheet of paper. I have no trouble coming up with puzzles and problems to write about, but often struggle to articulate them well initially. My first draft is often a mess, but once I have one, the hard part is over. I can focus on what I enjoy most, editing and improving my work through many iterations and discussions with my friends and colleagues.

Why should people read your book?

Environmental protection is the defining issue of our age: it poses deep challenges to the social, economic, and political structures of virtually every society and the global community. My book focuses on law as one of the core tools that shapes our response to local and global environmental degradation. The environmental minimum framework has an unashamed preference for continuity with established legal principles and incremental improvements over legal revolutions. The unique dataset of international, regional, and domestic court decisions gathered for the book is freely available online: it significantly improves our knowledge of environmental cases and the rigour of doctrinal research.

What book is currently on your bedside table?

I never quite developed a habit of reading for pleasure, so I mostly read the fascinating work of other academics. I highly recommend Judging Social Rights (by Jeff King) to anyone writing on human rights from a normative perspective and the collection of contributions in Free Speech in the Digital Age (Brison, Susan J. and Gelber, Katharine eds) to anyone interested in free speech.

What are you working on now?

I am currently working on two projects, one of which is connected to the book. The first project focuses specifically on regulatory responses to air pollution. Government responses to this public health crisis have been sluggish and hopes that courts might intervene have thus far been disappointed. My second research area is on the horizontal effect of human rights obligations. I take a closer look at the power of social media companies to shape access to platforms for free expression and ask whether we ought to impose some direct human rights obligations on particularly powerful platforms.