Individual environmental laws, such as those related to the climate or nature conservation, are not sufficient on their own to resolve environmental crises. Led by the University of Eastern Finland, a new international study calls for decisive changes to the core structures of legal systems in their entirety.
The study sheds light on where legal pressure for change should be directed in order to address global environmental crises, and how the impacts of change can be assessed more effectively than before. The findings suggest that legislative tools often fall short because the functioning of legal systems is examined in an overly simplified manner. Profound rethinking of legal systems is needed both in Finland and elsewhere in the world.
Published in Nature Sustainability, the study introduces a novel theory of change and an approach to the development of legal systems and legislative impact assessment. In particular, it responds to the escalating crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution as part of a broader sustainability transformation.
“In addition to wide-ranging legal reforms, change can be instigated by applying pressure to the key nodes within legal systems, where even small adjustments can have far-reaching consequences,” says Niko Soininen, Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Eastern Finland.
Too much attention is being paid to individual environmental laws
The climate, biodiversity and pollution crises have intensified, and seven of the Earth’s nine planetary boundaries have already been exceeded. Managing these crises requires legal change at a time when law is both a part of the problem and a part of the solution, as current regulation, in part, sustains overproduction and overconsumption. At present, however, attention is too heavily focused on individual environmental laws, based on the assumption that they alone would be sufficient to resolve environmental crises.
“In a complex legal system, this is not the case, nor does the legislator have direct means to change the way the entire system works. This leads us to consider how changes to legal systems should be implemented in order for them to be effective, and how the impacts of complex systemic change can be assessed.”
Small, strategic regulatory changes can trigger macro-level shifts
The model developed in the study is based on the idea that carefully targeted changes to individual regulations can generate wide-ranging effects across legal systems, with ramifications for the economy and society.
In the model, the core of Western legal systems is structured around six key concepts: property, contract, liability, authority, legal personhood and legal certainty. According to the study, changes targeted at these concepts may be decisive in addressing the challenges a radical shift to sustainability requires.
The legal system model developed in the study makes it possible to assess broader, system-level impacts of individual legislative changes. The study also outlines a new perspective on legislative impact assessment based on complexity theory, enabling more robust evaluation of the societal, economic and ecological effects of legal change.
The study was conducted as part of the Resilience of Complex Legal Systems in Sustainability Transformation project, RELIEF, which is funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Research Council of Finland, and as part of the KATKO project funded by the Saastamoinen Foundation. The projects examine how legal systems can support ambitious environmental sustainability objectives, such as mitigating climate change, protecting and restoring biodiversity and reducing pollution, without compromising the rule of law, fundamental rights and human rights. The premise is that the sustainability transformation challenges the structures of the legal system that shape economic and social processes within society.
Research article:
Niko Soininen, JB Ruhl, Ahjond Garmestani, Seita Vesa, Rakhyun E. Kim, Harri Jalonen, Petri Uusikylä, Harri Kalimo, Marko Keskinen, Dave Huitema, Kaisa Huhta, Antti Belinskij, Louis Kotzé, and Roy Brouwer (2026) 'Harnessing legal system complexity for radical shifts to sustainability’ Nature Sustainability. DOI: 10.1038/s41893-026-01809-8
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-026-01809-8
