Law at the End of the World

In this episode, Mihnea Tănăsescu joins us to discuss his groundbreaking research on Ecocene Politics. Mihnea reflects on how we can conceptualise human relationships with nature, with particular attention to learning from place-based restoration projects and Indigenous legal systems. We critically explore how hope, despair, and lucidity can help or hinder our attempts to make sense of the ecological challenges communities are facing around the world. We also discuss the ways that legal and political theory scholars can draw on and connect to other academic disciplines, like ecology, and use fieldwork to ground their thinking in lived experiences and place.
As always, Cristy and Liz round off with their updates about environmental law developments, including further developments in Aotearoa's climate tort saga and the status of Aborignal cultural heritage reform and climate litigation in Australia.
Profile of Mihnea Tanasescu (UMONS) 
Ecocene Politics
Researching river personhood: Making the case for relational research methods
Law and the Environment: An Act of Legal Kintsugi?
Woodside case 
Australian position on fossil fuels and renewables
Western Australia and Aboriginal heritage 
Inequality lab global justice project

Complaint laid with Ombudsman about 'apparent withholding' of information by PM's office

Committee recommends disestablishing Environment Ministry despite public opposition
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In this episode, Associate Professor Erin O'Donnell (U Melbourne) joins us as a guest co-host to chat with us about the perils, pitfalls, and promise of researching in the burgeoning field of rights of nature. We discuss the top methodological challenges inherent in doing research about the rights of nature and legal personhood, and provide our thoughts about how to do this sort of work ethically and in a way that contributes to the scholarly field, the community, and nature itself.
As always, we round off with our updates about developments in environmental law including cases, legislation, and policy changes. Highlights include international pressure to implement the ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change, climate litigation in Australia, and fisheries and conservation reforms and government interference with climate litigation in Aotearoa New Zealand.
People, Place and Nature in Indigenous-Settler Relations
Doing research about relational water governance… relationally: Critical methodological reflections about legal research on river personhood
UN experts urge states to support General Assembly resolution operationalising 
ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate obligations
Climate Change in the High Court of Australia
Statutory Consultation open: Environmental Offsets Standard
River Thames in London gets first official bathing spot on Friday
3rd Global Citizenship Education Hub
Missed opportunities in the Fisheries Amendment Bill
The quiet but major shift slipped in among the conservation law reforms
New plans to encourage private investment in nature
Climate law changes have 'clearly struck a nerve'
Mercury NZ Ltd v Māori Land Court 2026-NZCA-91.pdf 
Ours Not Mines Limited v Hauraki District Council [2026] NZCA 138 
Recommendations-for-ethical-engagement-of-IKS-within-the-IPCC
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In this episode, Cristy interviews Liz about her Blue Carbon Futures research program. While it’s been claimed that blue carbon ecosystems can sequester up to 10 times more carbon than terrestrial forests, the legal frameworks needed to protect and restore them are fragmented, contested, and in many cases, underdeveloped. Liz unpacks how ownership disputes, traditional land law boundaries, and colonial legacies create hurdles for Indigenous communities trying to restore and finance these vital wetlands.
Priority questions for the next decade of blue carbon science
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and Minister of Conservation 2026
High Court pauses Ngāi Tahu challenge to Conservation reforms
Smiler v Attorney-General [2026] NZHC 375
Our Freshwater 2026 Tō Tātou Wai Māori 
Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility v. Santos Ltd 
UniSuper referred to ASIC over alleged greenwashing
ACF adds new ground to North West Shelf case 
MACH Energy Australia v DAMSHEG & Anor
NT's McArthur River Mine
The Future of Freshwater 
3nd Global Citizenship Education Hub
Transforming food systems through human rights
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In this episode we are joined by lawyer and activist Pía Weber Salazar who discusses her collective work securing legal protections for free flowing rivers in Chile. Pía explains how communities and activist coalitions are working together to protect entire river systems. This work focuses on the implementation of water flow reserves in the Futalefú and Puelo Rivers in Chilean Patagonia, where almost all of the rivers' flow is now protected, despite fierce competition from extractive industries and fragmented regulations. Pía emphasises how legal, community, academic and advocacy efforts can come together to secure better futures for rivers and related communities, and identifies the challenges that lie ahead.  As always, Cristy and Liz round off with recent developments in environmental law, including new developments in climate litigation from Europe, Australia and Aotearoa, the ongoing legal battle against nitrate polution in Canterbury, and large-scale resource management reforms underway in Aotearoa. 
Futaleufú and Puelo Become Chile’s First Protected Rivers
Towards a Holistic Environmental Flow Regime in Chile
Towards durable legal protections for rivers in Chile
Evolving rights to (and of) water in Chile
No more ministry for the Environment
Assessment framework for carbon removals
Changes to National Direction under the RMA
MACA litigation
Freshwater litigation in Canterbury
ELI v ECan
Climate Clinic Aotearoa v Minister of Energy and Resources
Oxford Water Network 
Talking about Methods | Frontiers of Sociolegal Studies
WATER SHELF PODCAST: "Legal Geographies of Water" by Cristy Clark
Asmania et al. vs Holcim - ECCHR: Rising sea levels: An island fights against its demise 
ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2026:1347, Rechtbank Den Haag, C/09/659832 / HA ZA 24-53 (English translation)
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In this episode, Cristy and Liz share Part Two of their LSAANZ Conference special on Rights and Resilience.  The episode brings highlights from the December 2025 Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference, held in Ōtautahi Chirstchurch. The theme of the Conference was Rights, Relationality, Resilience, Reciprocity, and this episode focuses on sharing insights and advances from days two and three of the Conference - including book launches, Conference dinner, and Conference closing. The core hilight of the episode is a recording from the second keynote panel presentation on Rights and Resilience with Dr Keakaokawai Varner Hemi (U Waikato), Associate Professor and Rutherford Discovery Fellow Sereana Naepi (U Auckland), and Associate Professor Julia Dehm (La Trobe) beautifully curated by Cristy. This panel centres and champions the leadership of young Pacific leaders taking climate change to the highest court on the planet, and challenges all of us working in universities to make them places deserving of Māori and Pacific scholars, students, and communities. The episode is the second of two episodes bringing Conference highlights, and focuses on the Conference themes of Rights and Resilience, with particular focus on these concepts in the context of climate change, Pacific peoples, and education.
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Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes. 
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