
Prof. Dr. Dr. Louis Kotzé
Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow
- Phone
- louis.kotze@iass-potsdam.de
Louis Kotzé is Research Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, North-West University, SA, and Senior Professorial Fellow in Earth System Law at the University of Lincoln, UK. His research focuses on human rights, socio-ecological justice and environmental constitutionalism; law and the Anthropocene; and Earth system law. He has over 170 publications on these themes. Recent books include: Global Environmental Constitutionalism in the Anthropocene (2016); Environmental Law and Governance for the Anthropocene (2017); Sustainable Development Goals: Law, Theory and Implementation (2018); Research Handbook on Law, Governance and Planetary Boundaries (2021). He is assistant editor of the journal Earth System Governance; a Senior Fellow of the Earth System Governance Network; member of its Scientific Steering Committee; and co-convenor of the Network's Taskforce on Earth System Law. In 2016 he obtained a second PhD at Tilburg University, Netherlands. He is the recipient of several research awards including from: the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Exchange Service; the Austrian Exchange Service, and the SA National Research Foundation. In 2018 he was awarded a European Commission Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Fellowship to lead a project at the University of Lincoln titled: Global Ecological Custodianship-Innovative International Environmental Law for the Anthropocene. He currently is the Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow at IASS and works on the theme Earth System Law for the Anthropocene.