“The plastic problem is becoming more urgent by the day, but in terms of legislation we have only just begun to deal with it.”

Research focus: European and national environmental law, circular economy law, nature conservation law

Chris Backes is Professor of Environmental Law at the Institute of Jurisprudence, Constitutional and Administrative Law at Utrecht University. He is also affiliated to the Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law. He works in the field of international, European and Dutch environmental law, including in particular environmental law (waste, air quality and other topics) and nature conservation law. A focus of his research is on the law for a circular economy. He does a lot of comparative law research and is interested in how the law can promote the transition to a sustainable use of the living environment.

Chris Backes' research shows that an improved extended producer responsibility can be one of the ways to reduce waste mountains and increase circularity. Manufacturers are then not only responsible for the production, but also for the waste flow and the most circular reuse of a product. Improving the legislation surrounding substances, products and waste materials is therefore one of his research goals.
Another area of focus is nature conservation law, in particular the nitrogen issue. Together with Erisman (Leiden) and De Vries (WUR), he advised the Minister of Nature and Nitrogen to fundamentally change her policy and focus not on the reduction of deposition but on the reduction of emissions, seehttps://www.uu.nl/sites/default/files/rebo-stikstof-essay-Chris-Backes-juni-2023.pdf

Areas of interest:

• European, national and comparative environmental law
• Environmental law
• Nature conservation law
• Law for a circular economy
  
  

An integral sustainability performance requirement for buildings

TV report on the nitrogen crisis by EenVandaag (in Dutch)