Online | Ministries for the Future in Environmental Law

About this Annual Lecture

In his latest bestseller, The Ministry for the Future, science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson envisioned a new UN agency charged with advocating for future generations.  The book is described as a masterpiece of the imagination, though elements of it are not speculative at all.  One aspect that can already be observed is the international rise of new futures-focused institutions, aimed at bringing future interests into present-day governance processes.  This lecture will examine recent efforts to institutionalise future-oriented practices, powers and responsibilities worldwide, before focusing on initiatives in the UK – such as the pioneering work of Wales’s independent Future Generations Commissioner.  

About the Speaker

Professor Elen Stokes’s main areas of expertise are environmental law and policy, with particular points of focus on the regulation of new technologies, and the relationship between law and time. As a member of the Future Matters Collective (an interdisciplinary network of academics and arts-practitioners established to investigate society’s relationship to the future), her recent work looks at how law actively structures experience of the future in the here and now.   

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About the Centre

 The Centre for Law and Environment was established to provide a focal point for the UCL Faculty of Laws’ outstanding expertise and academic strength in the field of the environment and the law. The main goals of the Centre are to advance research and teaching and explore the role of law in meeting contemporary environmental and energy challenges.