Law
The Law Group, led by Louis Kotzé, focusses on legal solutions to social problems, including those studied in life sciences domains. These issues touch on every aspect of the law, which means that we have collective expertise on matters relating to EU law, food law, environmental law, international law, WTO law, intellectual property law, private law and human rights law.
Research themes
Environment
We focus on the regulatory challenges of managing the wide range of the public and private actors and actions that shape our social and natural environments
Food systems
Law plays a crucial role in achieving food system policy goals and in managing the trade-offs and synergies between them.
Business and human rights
Legal frameworks seek to maintain economic growth while regulating corporate activities in the face of global political contestation and technological innovations.
Human rights and public health
Our research is driven by using human rights as a lens to explore how the language, ideas, and principles of human rights can inform the transformation towards a more just and more sustainable world.
Education
Education by Law
At the Chair Groups of Wageningen University, we are very passionate about teaching. Our teaching staff is involved in multiple courses on BSc and MSc level for different study programs.
Our courses include aspects of various sciences. In addition, we offer courses that focus on training academic skills, such as writing and debating skills.
Publications & Projects
The fundamental research at Wageningen University & Research is conducted by chair groups. Each chair group, under leadership of a professor, has its own area of expertise. All chair groups share a common research domain: healthy food and living environment. Wageningen University & Research is comprised of one faculty that is divided into five departments.
Projects of this Chair Group cover various topics in its own area of expertise. Outcomes of these studies are regularly published in scientific journals. You can find all publications and projects in Wageningen Library.
Highlighted projects
- Rights of Buildings: An Ecocentric Legal Framework for Governance Reform in the Built Environment
- Guardians of the Waters: Climate Change Litigation, Indigenous Rights and the Protection of Aquatic Ecosystems - Dependent Communities in Africa.
- Implementing the Framework for Sustainable Food Systems at national level: An Austrian case study
Chair Holder
Professor Louis Kotzé is an internationally recognized scholar specializing in environmental law and governance. As Chair of the Law Group at Wageningen University & Research, he leads interdisciplinary research and teaching initiatives focused on the legal dimensions of sustainability, the Anthropocene, and global environmental governance. His work explores the intersections of international environmental law, human rights, and planetary boundaries, with a strong emphasis on earth system law and its role in addressing complex socio-ecological challenges.
prof.dr. LJ (Louis) Kotzé
Chairholder
People of Law
Each chair group of Wageningen University & Research, under leadership of a professor, has its own area of expertise. Meet the people of this Chair Group.
