Arınç Onat Kılıç

Arınç Onat Kılıç is a doctoral researcher and teaching assistant at the Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp, Belgium, and a visiting student at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies during Michaelmas term. His doctoral socio-legal research investigates the legal and financial structures of blue bonds, a specific sustainable finance instrument for water-related climate and biodiversity action. Particularly focusing on the real-life implications of various legal techniques, including contractual clauses, liability regimes, and enforcement mechanisms, this project critically examines whether the operationalization of different blue bond modalities aligns with the international law of sustainable finance and respects human rights. The project employs a mixed-methods approach, involving qualitative empirical data in the form of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders (financial actors, policymakers, NGOs, and local communities) and doctrinal legal research. The research's theoretical lens draws on critical legal theory, ecological modernization theory, and political ecology to analyze how blue bonds potentially reshape nature-society interactions and our understanding of what qualifies as climate and biodiversity finance by producing new subjectivities for actors involved.