What is CircuLaw?

Amidst the escalating climate crisis, the global community is under significant pressure to transition towards a more sustainable and circular economy. With the European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan and the Dutch government's commitment to a 50% reduction in the use of primary raw materials by 2030, formal commitment to this transition is taking shape. CircuLaw identifies opportunities in current law to support this circular future.

The complexity of the law

Unfortunately, laws and regulations are often seen as obstacles to change by citizens, market players, and policymakers. They were not drafted with the support of transitions in view. Presently, the legal system is perceived as too complex and is largely only understood by specialised lawyers, resulting in many circular policy opportunities being overlooked. Consequently, it is easier for policymakers to create a subsidy program or form a knowledge consortium rather than exploring the available legal opportunities.

Making the law accessible

Therefore, the City of Amsterdam, Dark Matter Labs and a growing coalition of knowledge and funding partners have been working to accelerate the transition to a circular economy by identifying opportunities within existing laws and regulations.

This collaborative effort is aimed at making relevant and innovative legal information more accessible to policymakers so that they can adequately support the circular transition through policy intervention. This is done through research, exploration and creating of multiple services, culminating in the creation of this legal knowledge platform, circulaw.nl.

Beyond Dutch law

CircuLaw has been primarily focused on Dutch laws and regulations, meaning that at present, this website is still only available in Dutch. However, we aim to expand our horizons by exploring the applicability of CircuLaw in a different legal context, and we are taking a closer look at the influence of European Union law. In doing so, the CircuLaw project will tap into an entire new source of legal and policy innovation, surpassing the interests of an exclusively Dutch audience. As such, we are planning to translate this website into English as soon as the content becomes more relevant to non-Dutch policymakers.

White papers in English

Meanwhile take a peek: preliminary research is already available in English. In preparation of the next steps we have been delving into EU legislation. This resulted in a series of white papers in English.