Legal Pathways to Sustainability: From Emergence to Interdisciplinary Action

In this keynote, Professor Seita Vesa examines the role of law and legal systems in sustainability transformations. She reflects on the radical societal shifts needed to address legally mandated targets on climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, and considers the tensions between the law’s traditional stabilising role and the need for urgent, far-reaching change.

Drawing on her research and collaborative work at the University of Eastern Finland and the Finnish Environment Institute, Vesa presents a forward-looking research agenda, outlining five avenues for legal scholarship:

adopting a multilayered perspective on legal instruments and values;
applying a multilevel governance approach;
fostering interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity;
ensuring social legitimacy through fair and transparent processes;
and embracing methodological innovation.

She concludes that sustainability transformation is a collaborative scientific effort, requiring the integration of legal, scientific, and societal perspectives to create just and future-proof legal pathways.

At the University of Eastern Finland, professors’ keynote lectures are a tradition where newly appointed professors give a popular lecture on the key themes of their discipline and research at the beginning of the school year.

Dr. Seita Vesa

She works as a Professor of Environmental Law, especially sustainability transitions at the Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law (CCEEL), as well as a Research Professor at the Finnish Environment Institute Climate Solutions Unit. She is also the Head of Research at UEF Law School.

Dr. Vesa has published on several topics relating to international and EU environmental and climate law (i.e. the LULUCF and effort sharing sectors’ legal framework, renewable energy, forests and bioenergy, sustainability transitions, environmental protection, and Arctic environmental law).

She holds external expert positions with both national and international working and steering groups. Dr. Vesa has extensive experience of e.g. acting as an editor to guest issues or as a reviewer, and she frequently delivers invited speeches and presentations at both international and national events.