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Project title

Mapping the Legal Influences of and Implications for International Law of the 2030 Sustainable-Development-Goals

Primary Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

Environmental Protection Agency

Lead Organisation

Irish Research Council (UCC)

Lead Applicant

Niamh Guiry

Project Abstract

The SDGs are universally applicable goals of an indivisible and integrated nature that encapsulate a new paradigm that relies on global political commitment and offers an alternative means of achieving non-binding targets whilst aligning with existing normative and soft instruments in international law. This project investigates the legal nature and impacts of the novel normative framework established by the SDGs. The SDGs will be critically analysed in conventional and customary international law to establish how the Goals have been shaped by, and will in turn shape, the international legal landscape. Mapping the legal influences and implications of this framework will involve investigating how the 17 SDGs and their Targets were identified, the legal significance of the SDG indicators, and analysing the legal impacts of the SDGs. Three SDGs will act as case studies to allow for the legal relationships between the SDGs and international environmental law to be explored in more depth: SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life On Land). The environment provides the foundation of the SDGs, and each selected Goal was chosen to allow for a deep exploration of a different sub-field of international environmental law. The SDG indicators establish technical specificity related to each Goal and the relevance of these indicators will be examined under the three chosen SDGs. An in-depth analysis of these three SDGs will allow for the identification of the interactions between the respective Goal and their corresponding area of law and an investigation of its potential to further the realisation of paramount international law objectives. Despite being a nonbinding framework, the SDGs are having significant impacts on international law. It is only by carrying out this critical analysis that these essential connections can be made, allowing this newfound knowledge to be utilised in global governance systems.

Grant Approved

�84,000.00

Research Hub

Climate Change

Research Theme

n/a

Start Date

01/09/2023

Initial Projected Completion Date

31/08/2026