Climate Justice and Transformative Constitutionalism: South Africa at the Center of the Global Legal Debate

On 19 June 2025, the University of Florence will host Prof. Melanie J. Murcott for a seminar on the role of courts in the socio-ecological crises of the Anthropocene.

Published on 06 June 2025 | News

 

As part of the LUMEN project, the research unit at the University of Florence is organizing the seminar “Transformative Environmental Constitutionalism in Africa”, which will take place on June 19, 2025, from 3 to 5 p.m. The speaker will be Melanie J. Murcott, Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town and a leading scholar in the field of environmental constitutional law.

The seminar will address legal responses to the Anthropocene’s converging socio-ecological crises, exploring how social movements are increasingly approaching the courts to advance intersecting struggles for social, environmental, and climate justice. Drawing on the South African experience, Murcott will present a theory of Transformative Environmental Constitutionalism, proposing a novel legal framework to guide courts in adjudicating environmental law disputes in the context of today’s global challenges.

The seminar is accessible online at the following link: https://meet.google.com/zdy-phav-bgm