Editorial Note: Sustainability, Just Transition and EU Law: Problematising the ‘Social’ in the EU’s Pursuit of a Better Futurefuture

Abstract

The EU is heavily invested in using law and policy as a means to shape a sustainable future. Especially after the European Green Deal, many instruments have been adopted with an emphasis on a green transition and which have brought about a shift in how the EU regulates finance and business activities in its internal market and beyond.  All the relevant instruments point to the centrality of environmental considerations in EU law making as well as to a heavier focus on businesses’ due diligence and reporting obligations. But where is the ‘social’ in the EU’s pursuit of a sustainable future? The purpose of this special issue is to interrogate precisely this question and to problematise how various EU policies adopted to pursue just transition promote or fail to promote social sustainability.

This editorial maps the relevant litterature, it offers some definitional clarifications on social sustainability and just transition and it introduces the contributions to the special issue Sustainability, just transition and EU Law. Moreover, it elaborates on the synergies and tensions between the articles as well as on the scholarly contribution of the issue as a whole.