The European Union Treaty after Lisbon emphasises the overarching objectives of sustainable development and a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment, high levels of environmental protection and social progress. Yet, in 2022, it is clear that these ambitions have not been fully achieved. The ongoing pandemic, the continuing fall-out from Brexit and the resulting economic damage, a Grexit avoided, and potential other exits from the EU, have come to undermine the political consensus of the idea of a European Union. Amidst these challenges, the debates on how to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals have turned towards demanding more sustainable economic policies, financial investments and business actions. The present volume provides a much-needed space for in-depth discussion of the concept of sustainable value creation and how it can be achieved within the ecological limits of our planet, through the prism of an interdisciplinary concept of sustainability.

This important volume steps beyond conventional legal approaches to sustainability to provide fresh insights into perhaps one of the most critical global challenges of our time. Offering analysis of sustainability at land and sea alongside trade, labour and corporate governance perspectives, this book articulates important debates about the role of law. From impacts on local societies to domestic sustainable development policies and major international goals, it considers multiple jurisdictional levels. With original, interdisciplinary research from experts in their legal fields, this is a rounded assessment of the complex interplay of law and sustainability-both as it is now and as it should be in the future.