Living Law® Expertise | Climate, Biodiversity, Energy, and Human Rights Law

Expertise and Principal Areas of Specialisation

At Living Law® we understand that law is more than compliance—and that it can be a force for progressive change. But navigating this fast-paced field can sometimes be daunting, even for the experienced. Since 2012, we have structured our international environmental and human-rights practice around six interconnected fields of law—six pillars for systemic transitions. These are not abstract categories, but strategic levers. Through them, we design holistic frameworks and perspectives to unlock rights and opportunities across scales—and build resilience into governance systems, economies, and institutions.

Each pillar draws on deep legal expertise across multilateral, national, and corporate contexts. From advisory, litigation, and advocacy, to policy design and capacity-building operations. Together, they allow us to deliver an outcomes-first approach that can:

Reduce systemic risks through early engagement
Protect reputations and uphold rights
Translate commitments into investment-grade delivery pathways; and
Future-proof long-term, resilient strategies for businesses, institutions, communities, and individuals.

For People. For Planet. For Future Generations. Arrange a consultation.

Six Pillars for Systemic Transitions

1. International Law — Multilateral treaties, rights-based norms, and cross-border enforcement.

The Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The UNECE Aarhus Convention on Environmental Democracy. The UN Minamata Convention on Mercury. These are some of the foundations we work with every day.

At Living Law, we convert multilateral treaty obligations into rights-based actions through national and multi-level engagement, advocacy, litigation, and governance.

Our approach engages rights-based norms, and we are a member of the UN Right to a Healthy Environment Coalition.

We have pioneered approaches on third-generation rights and the Rights of Nature in the UK.

Our work has increased awareness of transboundary harms and the obligations of international and customary law, now recognised in recent case-law developments.

We are experienced in multilateral diplomacy, participation in Treaty COPs, and submitting representations to treaty bodies and compliance mechanisms.

Our expertise encompasses both substantive and procedural matters.

Treaties and MEAs:
• UNFCCC/Paris, CBD, UNCLOS, Aarhus/Espoo, Minamata, and more.

• Transboundary harms: Air pollution, industrial emissions, waste trade, chemicals, and more.

• Rights-based norms: Right to a Healthy Environment; the Rights of Nature; third-generation rights; UN Special Procedures.

• International representation: COPs, treaty bodies, compliance mechanisms.

Outcome: Convert treaty obligations into enforceable national instruments and litigation strategies that protect ecosystems and communities.

2. Environmental and Climate Law — Protection of Ecosystems, compliance matters, and decarbonisation.

We secure binding remedies and regulatory pathways to cut emissions and restore ecosystems.

• Environmental Democracy: access to information, participation, justice (Aarhus Regulation).

• Climate and Energy Law: decarbonisation, transition frameworks, fossil fuel subsidy reform, and renewables.

• Biodiversity & Natural Resources: water, forestry, fisheries, oceans, and more.

• Pollution, Waste, and Chemicals frameworks: hazardous substances, regulation, and plastics.

• Circular Economy and Supply Chains: enforceable Frameworks for responsibility, due diligence, and resource efficiency.

Outcome: Support compliance and secure regulatory pathways that cut emissions and restore ecosystems.

3. Human Rights and Civil Liberties — Environmental justice, corporate accountability, and intergenerational equity.

We advance environmental justice and corporate accountability through litigation and advocacy grounded in a human rights-based approach. As a member of the Right to a Healthy Environment Coalition, our work embeds the substantive and procedural aspects of this right, and consideration for environmental defenders.

• Litigation and advocacy to advance full recognition of the Right to a Healthy Environment (R2HE).

• Corporate accountability and ESG: human rights violations from greenwashing, and supply chain due diligence failures.

• Future generations: rights frameworks that safeguard across time horizons.

• Community empowerment: supporting defenders and frontline groups based on the ECHR.

Outcome: Turn human rights into preventative, 'first-time right' decision-making; secure remedies where violations occur; and promote non-repetition wherever possible.

4. EU Law Post-Brexit — Energy transition, industrial emissions, habitats and compliance safeguarding across post-Brexit institutions.

Our expertise spans specialist subject matters such as energy transition, industrial emissions, habitats, and biodiversity compliance across EU and post-Brexit contexts. We guide clients through the complex post-Brexit regulatory landscape.

• Compliance and engagement with regulatory authorities.
• Post-Brexit safeguarding and regulatory divergence assessments.
• Industry and energy: IED, ETS, and cross-border enforcement.
• Water governance: WFD implementation and reform.
• Habitats and biodiversity: Natura 2000 sites, protected species, appropriate assessments, and cross-border compliance.
• Additional areas as required.

Outcome: Navigate post-Brexit EU law to deliver clear and enforceable outcomes.

5. Public and Administrative Law — Early regulatory engagement, governance advice, law reform, dispute management, and Judicial Review.

Our work aims to strengthen governance at its core: early engagement to avoid conflict, law reform to align with the Right to a Healthy Environment (R2HE), and robust dispute management and judicial review.

From consultations to parliamentary and other procedures, we work toward systems that are both resilient and accountable.

• Advising on the correct fora to pursue challenges—from regulators, to ombudspersons, to post-Brexit institutions (ESS/OEP).
• Formal Judicial Review and hearings representation.
• Public sector resilience and crisis preparedness—contingency planning and responses to floods, droughts, and ecological shocks.

Outcome: Build democratic legitimacy, and public-law systems that are accountable, resilient, and capable of withstanding shocks.

6. Corporate Accountability and Governance – Board-level preparedness and foresight; ESG integrity; greenwashing compliance, reputation protection, and litigation.

We bring expertise and a solutions focus for corporate actors to secure ESG integrity and governance, supply chain due diligence, and board-level advisory, foresight, and preparedness.

Our approach embeds long-term planetary boundaries and resilience thinking into governance frameworks for investment-grade sustainability decision-making.

• Board-level risk and foresight: planetary boundaries in corporate strategy.
• ESG governance and disclosure frameworks.
• Greenwashing compliance, enforcement, and strategic litigation; protecting reputation and brands.
• Supply chains, due diligence, and sustainable procurement.

Outcome: Convert sustainability commitments into investment-grade governance and assurance, protecting corporate reputations and accountability.

Innovating in law for a sustainable future.

Derived from eco- and innovation, Ecovation is our signature approach: pioneering legal frameworks that integrate science, technology, rights, and resilience to create enforceable and real-world solutions that don’t cost Earth.

It means more than adapting existing law — it’s about re-imagining how legal systems can anticipate ecological thresholds, empower communities, and unlock pathways for systemic transformation.

Ecovation is where creativity meets opportunity, producing legal solutions that are as innovative as the challenges they address.

Transforming ecological innovation into binding governance frameworks and practical legal instruments.

Talk to our team to discover Ecovation in action → /contact

Ecovation in Law — Innovating in law for a sustainable future.

Derived from eco- and innovation, Ecovation is our signature approach: pioneering legal frameworks that integrate science, technology, rights, and resilience to create enforceable solutions for a Living Planet.

It means more than adapting existing law—it’s about re-imagining how legal systems and advisory can anticipate ecological thresholds, empower actors, and unlock pathways for systemic transformation.

Ecovation is where creativity meets opportunity, producing legal tools and responses that are as innovative as the challenges they address.

Outcome focus:
Transforming ecological innovation into positive disruptors, new frameworks, pathways, and practical legal instruments.

Talk to our team to discover Ecovation in action → /contact

Thematic Focus — Where Law Meets Systems

Our six legal fields of specialisation are applied across key defining challenges through thematic lenses. This optic connects treaties, policy, litigation, governance, and corporate accountability to the realities of social-ecological systems and societal transitions—from Law to Living Law.

Through these themes we also align legal practice with science, policy, and ethics. From climate stability, biodiversity resilience, and adaptation, to corporate integrity and intergenerational justice— ensuring enforceable outcomes that are capable of enduring.

Ecological | Biodiversity • Climate • Energy Transition • Oceans • Water

Governance | Circular Economy • Corporate Accountability • Democracy • Justice • Rights • Rule of Law • Environmental Security

Futures Generations | Planetary Boundaries • Rights of Nature • Resilience Theory • the SDGs/Agenda 2030

Living Law® works to transform law from static rules into dynamic instruments for transitions—bridging commitments and enforcement, rights and remedies, people and planet.

Climate — Accelerating enforceable climate action and accountability.

We use litigation, regulatory design, and treaty-to-domestic translation to turn climate commitments into enforceable real-world actions.

From fossil-fuel subsidy reform and emissions enforcement, to statutory duties and corporate transition pathways, we align governance and corporate decision-making with scientifically aligned climate and other environmental targets.

We combine multi-level legal strategy with evidentiary rigour so actors can deliver verifiable reductions and resilient transition pathways that unlock opportunities, protect reputations, and safeguard assets.

Outcome focus: Delivering legally enforceable climate outcomes that protect people and ecosystems.

Talk to our team about climate issues → /contact.

Biodiversity — Legal frameworks that protect species, habitats, and embed ecological resilience.

We design and enforce biodiversity governance and protection across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments.

Services include protected-area legal design (Natura/other networks), habitat regulations, appropriate assessments, enforcement against damaging developments, and rights-based remedies for communities.

Our litigation and policy work is geared to secure long-term habitat integrity and integrates biodiversity thresholds into planning and corporate practice.

Working across technical specialisations, we support the translation of ecological science into durable legal protections.

Outcome focus: Securing binding legal protections that preserve ecological function and species resilience.

Talk to our team to explore biodiversity legal support → /contact.

Energy Transition — Regulatory and litigation pathways to a just energy transition.

We guide governments, investors, developers, and corporates through regulatory reform, procurement, permitting, and enforcement that underpin a rights-based energy transition.

Our work covers subsidy reforms, project consenting, grid networks, industrial emissions compliance, and litigation.

Combining transactional, regulatory, and public-law expertise, we can reduce legal risk to accelerate renewable rollout while protecting communities and ecological limits.

Outcome focus: Enabling lawful, rights-based, investment-grade decarbonisation that accelerates renewables, de-risks projects, and closes fossil-fuel gaps.

Talk to our team to discuss energy transition rights, just transitions, and project de-risking → /contact.

Oceans — Marine governance, fisheries, and ecosystem-protection law for the blue economy.

We advance ocean governance under UNCLOS and complementary frameworks to protect fisheries, regulate shipping emissions, reduce marine pollution, and design marine protected areas.

Our work spans cross-border enforcement, maritime permitting, seabed governance, as well as legal tools for plastics and hazardous ocean waste.

We support blue-economy development that aligns with planetary limits and respects coastal communities and biodiversity rights.

Outcome focus: Legally defending ocean health while shaping sustainable blue economies.

Talk to our team to explore marine law and ecosystem protections → /contact.

Water Resources — Binding legal action and compliance to protect rivers, catchments, and groundwater.

Water is the bedrock of life—and a legal priority. We support and enforce governance across catchments, transboundary basins, and supply systems: permitting, pollution enforcement, drought resilience, integrated water–climate planning, and WFD transposition/advice.

We work with experts to convert technical water science into regulatory and compliance obligations that tackle scarcity, pollution, and ecosystem-collapse risks.

Our work aims to secure water access, water quality, and resilient governance.

Outcome focus: Resilient, enforceable water governance that safeguards ecosystems and communities.

Talk to our team to explore water governance and compliance → /contact.

Circular Economy — Unlocking business opportunities.

Living Law has pioneered legal tools and models to end unnecessary waste, enforce producer and extended-producer responsibility, and uphold lawful, rights-based supply chains.

We support circularity being embedded into enforceable legal duties: responsibility schemes, hazardous-substance bans, plastics enforcement, EPR, and contractual due diligence in supply chains.

We advise on compliance frameworks and litigation strategies that prevent greenwashing and incentivise product and system redesign to protect reputations, unlock opportunities, and promote a competitive, level playing field.

Our interventions aim to reduce liability, unlock circular-economy business models for the long term, and promote accountability.

Outcome focus: Supporting circular-economy commitments into law and measurable practice, creating opportunities and a level playing field.

Talk to our team to explore how to build a circular-economy legal strategy for your business → /contact.

Environmental Democracy — Operationalising rights of access to information, public participation and justice (Aarhus).

We work to make environmental democracy practical and enforceable. Through access-to-information requests, participatory processes (engagement at the right time and in the right forum), and strategic Aarhus litigation, we empower communities to hold institutions accountable.

We advise on public consultation engagement, transparency obligations, and judicial remedies to ensure decisions are lawful, democratic, evidence-based, and inclusive. We also advise on compliance complaints where national actions have failed.

In addition, we provide capacity-building support to strengthen civic participation and institutional responsiveness.

Outcome focus: Supporting effective democratic processes that deliver transparent, participatory, and just environmental decisions—and building awareness of why participatory rights are beneficial rather than burdens.

Talk to our team about how to strengthen public participation or uphold participatory rights → /contact.

Corporate Accountability — Board-level governance and preparedness, greenwashing compliance and enforcement, supply chain due diligence.

Boards, investors and counsel rely on us for ESG integrity advice and long-term, defensible governance strategy.

We design disclosure frameworks, run greenwashing litigation, and help to embed supply-chain due diligence and protection into contracts and procurement systems.

We advise on reputational risk, enforcement exposure and remedies — helping companies convert sustainability promises into legal obligations that withstand scrutiny and unlock capital opportunity.

Outcome focus: Investment-grade governance that neutralises greenwashing risk, secures compliance, and creates competitive edge.

Talk to our team to discuss corporate and board risk governance → /contact.

Planetary Boundaries and Resilience — Embedding planetary science into law and governance.

We translate planetary-boundaries theory and expertise into practical legal thresholds, regulatory triggers, and governance metrics.

From pollution limits to biodiversity safeguards, we can craft approaches that make ecological thresholds legally resilient and auditable.

We advise institutions on resilience planning, contingency law, and legal instruments that can help keep economic activity within limits and legal parameters.

This enables organisations to play their part in lawful stewardship of planetary systems and create investment-grade resilience.

Outcome focus: Aligning human systems with planetary limits and legally robust resilience frameworks.

Talk to our team to explore how to embed planetary science into law, governance and contracts → /contact.

Rights of Nature and Indigenous Rights — Operating at the forefront of pioneering developments in the Rights of Nature.

We advise on the design of Rights of Nature frameworks for ecosystems and rights-holders, as well as rights-based legal architectures that recognise ecosystems and Indigenous/community rights-holders.

From the rights of rivers to institutional protections, we build legal instruments, governance models, and enforcement strategies that restore ecological dignity and strengthen rights—giving Nature a real voice.

Our work combines transdisciplinary drafting, litigation strategy, and community engagement to make Rights of Nature operational and defensible.

Outcome focus: Practical Rights-of-Nature architectures that deliver ecological protection and social justice.

Talk to our team to explore Rights of Nature options → /contact.

Future Generations — Intergenerational Justice (constitutional design, safeguarding, and futures law).

We embed intergenerational accountability into legal and corporate frameworks: futures and long-term impact assessment requirements, constitutional provisions, and litigation strategies that protect tomorrow’s interests today.

Our practice combines strategic litigation, policy design, and institutional governance architecture to ensure legal systems consider and protect future generational rights and ecosystems. This is law that secures rights for intra-generational equity.

Outcome focus: Durable legal mechanisms and defensible corporate strategies that embed and protect the interests of future generations.

Talk to our team to build or uphold intergenerational legal protections → /contact.

The Sustainable Development Goals / Agenda 2030 — Embedding the UN SDGs into enforceable legal frameworks.

We align legal advice and governance design with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda.

From national implementation plans to corporate ESG strategies, we translate broad commitments into frameworks, instruments, and contractual obligations.

Our work ensures that climate, biodiversity, equity, and justice targets are not aspirational statements, but enforceable legal realities—defensible under scrutiny and strengthening accountability across governments, corporates, and institutions, while aligning competitive practice with opportunity creation.

Outcome focus: Converting the SDGs from voluntary pledges into measurable, enforceable pathways for sustainable development.

Talk to our team to align your operations with the SDGs through law → /contact.

Our team has appeared before a range of UN, EU and national fora and are here to serve your goals.

Ready to convert ideas and commitments into outcomes? Talk to us about governance design, compliance, or litigation that secures the measurable results that matter for you.

Recognitions

Best Environmental Law Specialists of the Year, UK (2020–2024) — Global 100.
Leading Environmental Law Experts (2020, 2019) — Scottish Enterprise Awards.

Scottish Law Firm · Solicitors · Notary Public

For a Living Planet EST. 2012

Award-Winning International Environmental and Human Rights Law Firm

We combine legal excellence with a mission: protecting people and the planet, advancing the Rights of Nature, and enhancing diversity in law.

Member @LawScot; Expert Member @UNHwN (Earth Jurisprudence); Member @IUCNWCEL

Expertise and Principal Areas of Specialisation

Recognitions

Expertise and Principal Areas of Specialisation

Recognitions

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