From Frameworks to Functioning Law: Bridging the Creation, Implementation, and Enforcement of Sustainability Law

5th Young Sustainability Law Conference—JNR 2026

Over the past decade, sustainability has moved from a peripheral concern to a central pillar of legal and policy frameworks across the globe. From the Paris Agreement and the EU’s Green Deal to national climate laws, governments have committed to ambitious targets. Yet, despite this surge in normative ambition, a persistent gap remains between legal commitments and on-the-ground impact. This gap is not merely technical — it is political, institutional, and deeply embedded in how law is made, applied, and enforced. Courts are increasingly called upon to interpret climate obligations, administrative agencies must implement complex regulatory schemes, and private actors—from corporations to investors—are expected to comply with new due diligence and disclosure requirements.

The JNR 2026 shifts the focus from what sustainability law provides to how it works in practice. Our central question is how sustainability law can move beyond aspirational commitments toward effective, enforceable, and transformative legal action—especially in contexts of political resistance, institutional fragility, and global inequality.