Angus Nurse

Short Resume

Angus Nurse, Ph.D., LLM., MSc is Professor of Law and Environmental Justice and director of the Centre for Access to Justice and Inclusion (CAJI) at Anglia Law School, Anglia Ruskin University. He was previously Head of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Nottingham Trent University (2021-2023), where he remains a doctoral supervisor. He is co-series editor of the book series Palgrave Studies in Green Criminology and is the Chair of the British Society of Criminology’s Green Criminology Research Network. He is the 2024-2026 Chair of the Environment and Technology Division for the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP), a member of the Wild Animal Welfare Committee (WAWC) and co-chair of the Wildlife Working Group for the UK Centre for Animal Law (A-Law).

Title of the presentation

Greening Justice: Ecojustice and Remedying Environmental Harm

Abstract

Environmental harm manifests itself in various ways, from the direct harms of capitalist activity (e.g., industrial pollution), indirect or unintentional harms caused by accidents and upset incidents, and the exploitation of non-human nature. How to address and achieve redress for environmental harms is a potentially contentious issue. The reliance on criminal law mechanisms to deal with environmental harms is potentially flawed given the reality that much environmental harm is caused by ostensibly legal activity. Dealing effectively with contemporary environmental problems arguably requires a new, hybrid approach to justice and regulatory responses. Ecojustice refers to both the notion of applying concepts of justice to the environment and non-human nature (including animals), and to the linking of environmental concerns to social justice issues. This includes considering how justice and regulatory systems deal with the impact of environmental degradation on vulnerable groups and how best to regulate polluting industries and corporate environmental harm. With a focus on corporate environmental harms and the behaviour of multinational corporations (MNCs), this presentation argues for an effective ecojustice approach based on remedying environmental harms and considering the needs of the environment and non-human nature rather than continued reliance on the punitive approach of the criminal law.

Keywords

ecojustice, ecocide, green criminology, environmental harm, environmental crime