Biography
Émilie Gaillard is a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Law of the European University Institute and an Associate Professor of Private Law at Sciences Po Rennes. Her research focuses on the law and rights of future generations, transgenerational legal theory, environmental law, rights of nature, climate justice and the transformation of legal thought in the Anthropocene.
She has worked on the legal status and protection of future generations since her doctoral research, defended in 2008. Her thesis, Générations futures et droit privé. Vers un droit des générations futures, developed a legal framework for addressing the interests and rights of future generations and explored concepts including temporal non-discrimination, the dignity of future generations and transgenerational legal relationships. Her doctoral research was awarded the Charles Dupin Prize by the Académie des sciences morales et politiques of the Institut de France.
Her subsequent research has contributed to the development of a broader theory of the Law of Future Generations and of a dynamic legal epistemology capable of integrating long-term timeframes, uncertainty, irreversibility and complex interdependencies into legal reasoning.
Her work also examines the relationships between future generations, environmental protection, human rights, the rights of nature, existential risks and emerging forms of legal responsibility. She has developed an interdisciplinary and increasingly transcultural approach to these questions, exploring how different legal traditions and worldviews can contribute to the protection of life and future generations.
Émilie Gaillard was the holder of a CNRS Normandy for Peace Chair of Excellence devoted to future generations and peace. She is the author of numerous publications on future generations and has spoken at universities, international institutions and academic conferences in Europe and internationally.
At the EUI, her research further develops a transcultural and transgenerational approach to the Law of Future Generations, with particular attention to the renewal of legal epistemology and to the long-term transformation of legal systems.