Allard’s Centre for Law and the Environment Presents: Sustainable Development, International Law, and a Turn to African Legal Cosmologies

This talk by Godwin Dzah focuses on his pioneering book which analyzes and reimagines the concept of sustainable development in international law from a non-Western legal perspective. Built upon the intersection of law, politics, and history in the context of Africa, its peoples and their experiences, customary law and other legal cosmologies, this ground-breaking study applies a critical legal analysis to Africa’s interaction with conceptualising and operationalising sustainable development. It proposes a turn to non-Western legal normativity as the foundational principle for reimagining sustainable development in international law. It highlights eco-legal philosophies and principles in remaking sustainable development, where ecological integrity assumes a central focus in the reimagined conceptualization and operationalization of sustainable development. While this original book highlights Africa as its analytical pivot, its arguments and proposals are useful beyond Africa. Godwin Eli Kwadzo Dzah illuminates our current thinking on sustainable development in international law by connecting global discourses on nature, the environment, rights and development.

In person and online. Register using the link on this page to secure your space.