{"id":9112,"date":"2026-11-08T08:54:29","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T08:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/?p=9112"},"modified":"2026-11-08T08:59:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T08:59:50","slug":"kent-law-school-academic-recognised-in-2026-anna-grear-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/kent-law-school-academic-recognised-in-2026-anna-grear-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent Law School academic recognised in 2026 Anna Grear Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Andreas Kotsakis<\/a>, Senior Lecturer at Kent Law School, has been named runner-up for the 2026 Anna Grear Prize. The award recognises outstanding work published in the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The recognition is for Andreas\u2019s article, \u201cIPBES in a Double Bind: Science, Sovereignty and the Craft of Authority<\/a>\u201d. It explores how the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) works at the intersection of science, law and international decision-making.<\/p>\n

The article examines the challenge of producing knowledge that can inform policy while respecting the limits of the Platform\u2019s mandate. Andreas describes his article below:<\/p>\n

‘Change the world\u2014but stay out of politics!<\/em> That is the double bind facing the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the transnational scientific body assessing biodiversity loss. This article examines its struggles as a hybrid international and knowledge institution caught between declining commitments to the rules-based international order and science-based policy making and ambitious mandates to \u2018speak truth to power\u2019 in the context of alarming global biodiversity decline and loss. My paper explores how IPBES manages to continue its reporting, as well as call for global transformative change while remaining answerable to governments determined to retain control \u2013 both of resources themselves, as well as of the narrative. Drawing on Gregory Bateson\u2019s double-bind theory, it reveals why turning scientific warnings into action involves a continual negotiation over knowledge, sovereignty and who gets to shape our environmental future. It traces how IPBES navigates the bind through concepts such as nature\u2019s contributions to people and transformative change, which widen whose knowledge counts and strengthen calls for action while working within the Platform\u2019s mandate. Readers gain a lens for understanding why IPBES can seem both cautious and ambitious\u2014and why its authority depends on continually making those competing demands visible and manageable, rather than resolving them once and for all.’<\/p>\n

The Anna Grear Prize is awarded for the best article published in an annual volume of the journal.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Andreas on this recognition of his scholarship.<\/p>\n

This year, Andreas teaches Environmental Law and Critical Introduction to Law at undergraduate level, alongside Public International Law and Global Pollution Law on the LLM. Andreas also welcomes PhD proposals in public international and environmental law, including research on environmental justice, climate and energy, biodiversity and pollution. He supports theoretically ambitious, interdisciplinary projects grounded in a clear legal question, with supervision tailored to each researcher.<\/p>\n