Nadia Islam Nody1* and Mehenaj Binte Amin2
1Department of Law, Bangladesh Army International University of Science and Technology, Syedpur, Cumilla, Bangladesh. Email: nadia.law@baiust.ac.bd
2Department of Law, Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology, Uttara, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: mehenaj.binte.amin@gmail.com
*Corresponding Author
Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s industrial and developmental projects came to a halt leading some researchers to believe that COVID-19 was a pandemic that nature has sought for its own defense and restoration. Conversely, some of the conspiracy theorists termed it as a biological weapon used as part of a covert war strategy to undermine the economic structures of several states and creating a new world order based on trade and industry. Meanwhile, climate change being another critical issue since the booming of the industrial revolution resurfaced into the discussion of further deterioration. Climate change has been addressed by many international conventions such as the Paris Agreement, Rio Declaration, Stockholm Declaration, and the WTO Treaty. The different parts of United Nations bodies such as the UNEP, UNDP, UNFCCC, and other bodies constantly call for actions to combat climate change by developing further actionable policies and implementation through domestic activism. Due to the policies having a lesser effect than the domestic laws in most of the dualist states, implementation fails to produce the intended result. Even the monist states decline these conventions keeping their reservations and special privileges. Thus, it is high time for a new legal order to be addressed to combat the post-COVID environmental challenges by creating a stricter rule of environmental laws. This paper critically examines the loops in the existing legal system and advocates for a hegemony of Environmental Rule of Law. The analytical approach identifies the inconsistencies within the international and domestic laws to find the probable bridge between science and legal consensus to generate a stricter formulation for an eco-friendly legal hegemony. The paper concludes with the idea that law itself shall govern every nook and corners of the sustainability idea to mitigate the post pandemic hazards.
Keywords: Environment, pollution, post-COVID, sustainability, climate
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