‘Just transition’ has evolved from a political slogan to a concept embedded in legally binding sustainability frameworks. As sustainability transitions progress, their uneven societal effects require increasing attention. Law plays a key role in shaping these processes and balancing competing interests. How exactly, is nevertheless unclear. This blog explores two research avenues to deepen our understanding of law’s role in enabling just transitions.

The concept of a ‘just transition’ emerged as a response to the societal impacts of sustainability transitions, particularly recognising that such transitions can exacerbate existing inequalities, or create new ones, unless counterbalanced by policies that engage and support affected groups. Initially, the concept was used to safeguard specifically workers’ interests but is today more often used with reference to also other vulnerable social groups, economic sectors, and regions impacted by systemic change in sustainability transitions.

Fairness is crucial for the success of sustainability transitions, as polices perceived as unjust risk delegitimising sustainability efforts, causing resistance and even social unrest. What a just transition requires or how it is best ensured is, however, still contested. As expressed by commentators, the open-ended nature of ‘just transition’ enables divergent actors to “subject the term to a wide variety of interpretations, reflecting diverse positionalities, theories of change, worldviews, and political preferences”. What is just will also look different in different contexts, suggesting a need to talk about just transitions in plural.

As a contribution to these debates, we argue that law plays a crucial role in enabling just transitions. Law is not just a mechanism for enforcing policies; it actively defines, shapes, and constrains what justice means – and can mean – in legal contexts. It establishes rights, responsibilities, and power dynamics, influencing whose interests are recognised and protected in sustainability transitions. Despite this, just transition has received limited attention from legal scholars. This blog explores two legal research avenues to bridge this gap.

Understanding the rise of ‘just transition’ in law: what does it mean and why does it matter?

The increased understanding of the societal effects of sustainability transitions is reflected in the growing references to a ‘just’ or ‘fair’ transition in sustainability legislation. This trend is visible in all settings from the global to the local. Internationally, the most well-known example is the reference to a just transition in the preamble of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Since then, just transition has been given its own work programme in international climate debates and is for instance part of negotiations for a global plastics treaty. Regionally, the European Union has taken up the just transition agenda, most visibly through new support instruments, including the Just Transition Fund and the Social Climate Fund. Governments have further included just transition principles or requirement in national climate laws, including in Colombia, Fiji, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, South Korea, and Spain.

The meaning and impact of these legal developments are only beginning to be researched. These questions deserve more attention from legal scholars to uncover both the value and limitations of emerging just transition frameworks. Given the competing interests that shape interpretations of just transition at international, regional, and local levels, research should pay particular attention to who defines, bears responsibility for, and benefits from emerging just transition frameworks. Importantly, legal analysis can alert to potential instance of justice-washing, where the term is used without real legal weight or in a narrow manner, that does not respond to the diverse justice concerns arising within the transition.

How can legal systems enable a just transition?

Beyond explicit references to just transition in laws, our legal systems are, at least in theory, designed to bring about just processes and outcomes. The basic ideas of a just transition align with core rule of law principles, which strive to ensure public power is exercised legitimately. These principles include formal (clear and consistent legal rules), procedural (fair decision-making processes), and substantive (protection of human and fundamental rights) dimensions – all essential for fair and inclusive transitions during systemic change.

Clear and consistent legal rules limit the haphazard application of public policies and provide an (in theory) equal chance for actors to adjust their actions based on existing legal frameworks.

Fair decision-making processes, in turn, support the procedural justness of policymaking, providing relevant actors the opportunity to take part in the development of policies that will affect them. Within sustainability transitions, procedural safeguards are further strengthened through the pillars of the Aarhus Convention, guaranteeing access to information, participation, and access to justice in environmental matters. However, research has illustrated shortcomings in the implementation of these safeguards.

Lastly, human and fundamental rights can offer protection for vulnerable groups and legal remedies for disproportionate impacts from sustainability measures. As an illustrative example, the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the construction of Europe’s biggest onshore wind farm violated the cultural rights of the indigenous Sami people. This demonstrates how human rights litigation can work as a tool to express justice claims within sustainability transitions.

Notably, broader notions of just transition, focused on dismantling existing structural inequalities, span beyond traditional rule of law principles, grounded in formal equality. This suggests a need for legal scholars to engage with the conceptual foundations of justice within current legal systems, to recognise their potential and limitations in instances of systemic change required for sustainability transitions. Which rights holders do they truly protect, and to what extent? Do sustainability transformations create disproportionate impacts on certain groups, places, or beings that current legal safeguards overlook? Within the EU legal context, scholars have for example underscored the need for stronger social and labour rights to counteract the disruptive effects of sustainability measures.

To conclude, just transition has evolved from a political catchphrase into a legally embedded concept that actively shapes sustainability transitions. This shift underscores the growing role of law in defining, guiding, and enforcing just transitions. As law increasingly shapes, constrains, and enables just transitions, the challenge lies in ensuring it serves as more than a rhetorical tool, but as a meaningful force for fairness in systemic change.

Vilja Johansson is a doctoral researcher at the University of Eastern Finland’s Center for Climate Change, Energy, and Environmental Law (CCEEL). Her research focuses on the legal evolution of just transition, including in international, European and comparative climate law.

Outi Penttilä is a senior policy researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute’ Societal Change Unit (SYKE). Her work focuses on international and Finnish environmental law, including the role law plays in sustainability transformation.

Seita Vesa is a Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Eastern Finland’s Center for Climate Change, Energy, and Environmental Law (CCEEL) and a Research Professor at the Finnish Environment Institute’s Climate Solutions Unit (SYKE).