| Brief History of the Academy |
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The Academy operates under a Licence Agreement with the IUCN-The World Conservation Union. It has become part of a long history of interaction between lawyers, scientists and other professionals concerned with environmental conservation. The IUCN brings together 82 States, 111 government agencies, more than 800 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including a number of universities and around 10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries. The following briefly traces the history of the IUCN and the emergence of the Academy. 1948 IUCN was founded as an international, intergovernmental organization, with a unique hybrid constitution. 1968 IUCN’s Environmental Law Programme was established to contribute to the development of environmental law, and to the conceptual development of innovations in how legal instruments and frameworks can advance conservation of nature and natural resources. 1997–2002 IUCN’s Commission on Environmental Law consulted widely and held a number of meetings with environmental law scholars from many of the Earth’s regions of the Earth about how to enhance teaching and research in environmental law. In 1998 the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, at the Council Meeting held in conjunction with IUCN’s 50th Anniversary Observances in Fontainebleau, France, announced plans to establish an international Academy of Environmental Law. 2000 At the 2nd World Conservation Congress in Amman, Jordan, IUCN Members considered and endorsed the proposal that a new Academy on Environmental Law be organized, and requested the Commission on Environmental Law to prepare a plan for review and endorsement by the Council of IUCN. 2002 In August 2002, at its Steering Committee meeting in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the IUCN Commission of Environmental Law resolved to propose that the new Academy be named the “IUCN Academy of Environmental Law.” In December 2002, the IUCN Council unanimously approved the establishment of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law at its 57th meeting in Gland, Switzerland. 2003 Preparatory meetings were held at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Pocantico Hills Conference Center in New York’s Hudson River Valley, and at the United Nations Headquarters. In November 2003, the IUCN Academy was launched at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, at its First Colloquium, “The Law of Energy for Sustainable Development”. At the launch, more than 160 environmental law academics from 70 different universities spanning 42 nations attended to examine reforms in the law of energy appropriate to advance sustainable development and mitigate climate modification. 2004 In October 2004 the Second Colloquium,” Human Habitats and Land Stewardship”, was held at the University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya. 2005 In July 2005 the Third Colloquium, “Biodiversity: Bridging the Divide”, was held at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. 2006 In early 2006, the Secretariat of the Academy was established in the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, supported by both the Common Law and Civil Law sections, and with generous funding from Environment Canada and Health Canada, together with grants from Hydro Quebec and the Canadian Government’s International Development Research Centre. In May 2006, the inaugural meeting of the Academy’s Governing Council took place at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. At this meeting, the Co-Directors Professor Jamie Benidickson and Professor Ben Boer were appointed. In September 2006, the Academy was legally incorporated in Canada, and it s By-laws were released through Industry Canada. In October 2006, the Fourth Colloquium, “Environmental Law Compliance & Enforcement” was convened at Pace University, White Plains, New York, USA. The second meeting of the Academy’s Governing Council took place as part of the Colloquium’s events. The Secretariat of the Academy was officially launched in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa as part of the Seventh Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation. |