Researcher at the Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Center, Potsdam and Research Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, North-West University
Louis Kotzé is research professor of law at the Faculty of Law, North-West University, South Africa, where he teaches international and African regional environmental law in the structured LLM programme. In 2022 he was Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Center in Potsdam.
He is also senior professorial fellow in Earth system law at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom. His research broadly encompasses three interrelated themes that he approaches from a transnational perspective: human rights, socio-ecological justice and environmental constitutionalism; law and the Anthropocene; and Earth system law. He has over 150 publications on these themes. Recent books include: Research Handbook on Human Rights and the Environment (with Anna Grear-Edward Elgar, 2015); Global Environmental Constitutionalism in the Anthropocene (Hart, 2016); Environmental Law and Governance for the Anthropocene (Hart, 2017); Sustainable Development Goals: Law, Theory and Implementation (with Duncan French-Edward Elgar, 2018); Research Handbook on Law, Governance and Planetary Boundaries (with Duncan French-Edward Elgar, forthcoming). He is assistant editor of Earth System Governance. In 2016 he obtained a second PhD at Tilburg University, Netherlands, and he was awarded a European Commission Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Fellowship to lead a research project at the University of Lincoln titled: Global Ecological Custodianship-Innovative International Environmental Law for the Anthropocene (GLEC-LAW).