LUMEN: New Reader Published on Environment and Law in Africa

“Rethinking Environment and Law in Africa. A LUMEN Reader” has been published as a new deliverable of the PRIN 2022 PNRR LUMEN research project.

The volume represents one of the outcomes of the research carried out by the University of Florence unit, coordinated by Professor Veronica Federico, within a project that also involves the University of Bologna and the University of Trieste.

Rather than providing an exhaustive bibliography, the reader is conceived as an initial, reasoned mapping of the main research lines developed during the project. In particular, it is structured around three core strands: the conceptualisation of environmental rights in Africa; the analysis of environmental litigation and case law; and the relationship between ubuntu, ecology, and law.

Through a carefully selected set of academic contributions and legal materials, the volume offers a structured overview of key issues in contemporary debates on African environmental law, highlighting innovative approaches and decolonial perspectives.

The reader is also designed as a teaching resource, useful for developing university courses and educational activities in environmental law, comparative law, and African legal studies. Its aim is to support both research and teaching by providing a clear and organised entry point into complex and evolving topics.

The LUMEN project, active from 2022 to 2025, is part of the initiatives funded under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), with the goal of developing a transcultural eco-legal framework capable of rethinking the relationship between law, nature, and human ecosystems on a global scale.