Will Thackray

I am exploring how ‘preserving, protecting and improving’ the environment (Art. 191 TFEU) should be understood in the context of EU nature conservation law - including, but not limited to, reintroductions, assisted migration, rewilding, and de-extinction. For example, my research considers whether conventional ambitions to keep humans out of nature or to restore nature to previous states can or should survive the dynamic, temporal and spatial realities that define the Anthropocene, and how we should understand and apply pivotal terms such as ‘conservation’, ‘environmental health’, and ‘natural’. Furthermore, because nature conservation is such a science-heavy field, my research draws on science and technology studies in order to explore how law acts as an ordering force in the creation and deployment of conservation science.