The Ninth Colloquium will be held in South Africa  July 3 – 7, 2011. The draft programme for the event  Water and the Law: Towards Sustainability is now available. The Call for Papers outlines the themes of the conference. More information about the Colloquium arrangements can be accessed at http://www.iucnael-watercolloquium-2011.com/home/default.asp.

2011 marks the inaugural year of our Call for Best Colloquium Paper Prize, open to those delegates with accepted abstracts.

We will also be holding a half-day workshop, “Towards the Legal Recognition and Governance of Ecosystem Services", on Sunday, 3 July, just prior to the Colloquium. This workshop is jointly hosted by the Research Committee of the IUCN Academy, the IUCN Environmental Law Centre and the Commission on Environmental Law.

The Academy’s Eighth Colloquium took place 14 – 16 September  2010 in Ghent, Belgium, hosted by Ghent University’s Centre of Environmental Law and Energy Law. The theme of the meeting was Linkages between Biodiversity and Climate Change. You can access many of the powerpoint presentations (at the noted link) delivered at the Colloquium.

On 13 September, the IUCN Academy co-hosted, with the  IUCN Environmental Law Centre and the Commission on Environmental Law, a one-day workshop on Human Rights and Environmental Protection.

[Re]Claiming Accountability

Contact us at: YaleEnvLawConference@gmail.com

Please join us on February 25, 2012 and help [re]claim environmental accountability in our legal system and beyond.  This is the second annual conference in our New Directions in Environmental Law Conference Series, hosted by the Yale Environmental Law Association. This year we will challenge the meanings andmechanisms behind environmental accountability—from the local to the global, from litigation to regulation to market-based opportunities and norm-shifting movements. We will critically question environmental accountability in the modern era and amongst evolving legal strategies.

Our foundational conference last spring, A Climate of Possibility, drew 300 practitioners, policymakers, academics, and students from around the country to inquire into the problems, challenges, and potential new directions in environmental law and policy. Last year’s conference was defined by inclusive and provocative conversations, which we look forward to expanding upon this February.

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE

Keynote Speaker Mary Nichols: Chairman of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and former Assistant Administrator for the U.S. EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. A pathbreaker at for clean air solutions at CARB, a pivotal leader towards implementing California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, and a bold advocate for environmental and public health throughout her career, Chairman Nichols puts a face to the force and future of this Conference. Through her service across government and in the non-profit legal arena, Chairman Nichols has ensured pollution reduction accountability within a patchwork of common-sense partnerships; she continues to prove that environmental law is a field rich with practical purpose and principled foundations.

Panel Conversations: Nature in Brief: Creative Legal Approaches to Accountability
Nature in Brief will be a dynamic panel conversation that questions how practitioners can—and whether they should—stretch the bounds of standard canons, the common law, or constitutional claims to hold actors accountable for environmental harms through creative legal approaches, and in particular, litigation.  The panel will bring together divergent voices—individuals who are looking at existing laws through a new lens and individuals who must ground their approaches within established institutional frameworks—to advance this evolving conversation.

Workshops: The workshops will engage participants in conversations about the contours of environmental accountability. They will be led by experts in their fields and designed to be round-table discussions that bring participants into the discourse, bridging communities of inquiry and practice amongst students, professors, and practitioners. Topics will include:

• Environmental Enforcement: Using Civil & Criminal Laws to Address Env. Misdeeds
• Alternative Dispute Resolution in Lieu of Environmental Justice Litigation
• Offshore Oil Drilling Accountability Post-Deepwater Horizon
• Environmental Markets: Urban & Rural Responsibilities
• The Case of Specialized Environmental Courts
• Accountability to Future Generations
• Food: Sustainability & Access
• Smart Growth and Land Use
• Ocean Acidification

The Conference will also feature Social Events, a Reception, and an
Environmental Law Society Programming Lunch

Register Now!

Climate Law, a peer-reviewed quarterly journal, has entered its third year of publication. Papers are invited on all aspects of climate change law and regulation.

The journal is available online (http://www.metapress.com/content/121801) and in hard copy. It is overseen by an editorial board of unrivalled distinction (please see http://www.iospress.nl/journal/climate-law/).

Manuscript submissions should be emailed to the editor, Dr Alexander Zahar, Macquarie Law School, Sydney (alexander.zahar@mq.edu.au).

Books for review should be sent to the book reviews editor, Mr Navraj Singh Ghaleigh (n.ghaleigh@ed.ac.uk).

Click here for more information.

The University of Denver Sturm College of Law has assumed the editor responsibilities for the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law (JERL), a peer-reviewed journal published by the International Bar Association.  The journal is affiliated with the IBA Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law.

JERL offers global coverage of oil and gas, minerals, nuclear power, coal, water, and renewable energy as well as a broad array of environmental and sustainability-related issues.  Because of the Journal’s international reach, authors are assured wide distribution of their work.   The faculty-led nature of the editorial process results in a selection of the best and most thought-provoking work from around the world.  Initial indication of acceptance for peer review is given promptly by the editor, and the peer review process is efficient and often contributes positively to the quality of published articles.

Submissions in the form of articles, book reviews, or essays on a particular subject are welcome.  Submissions may compare how several countries approach a particular issue, address an international issue, or simply elaborate on a topical area of law from their own jurisdiction.

JERL is published quarterly, and article submissions are received throughout the year.  Submissions (as well as questions) should be sent to dcsmith@law.du.edu.   More information about the journal can be found here.

The year 2012 marks a number of watershed points in international environmental affairs: The 40th anniversary of the adoption of the Stockholm Declaration, the 30th anniversary of the UN World Charter for Nature and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the 25th anniversary of the Brundtland Report, and the 20th anniversary of both the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and the UNCED Conventions: the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

In June 2012 world leaders will gather once again in Rio de Janeiro for the Earth Summit 2012 to secure renewed political commitment to the global agenda of sustainable development.

This is an appropriate point in time for reflection on the legal status of nature, how environmental goods and services are valued and taken into account in decision-making, and the implications of the rule of law in this respect.

While the rule of law generally is used with regard to citizens’ rights, this conference aims to explore the application of the rule of law to environmental protection, and its implications. How can the legal protection of the natural environment be strengthened? This also opens for reflections on the temporal and geographical extension of the rule of law.

The conference aims at analysing these basic issues of international and national environmental law and looking at new trends in this area of law.

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The International Conference Dynamic Deltas on Safety and Sustainability in rural delta regions will be held April 17-20, 2012 in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. Please mark the conference in your agenda!

Read the full First Announcement on www.dynamicdeltas.org.

Coastal protection is a world wide issue that requires huge investments to sustain safety, economy and ecology in low lying Delta areas under climate change. During this conference various scenarios will be critically reviewed by international experts and results will be presented at the conference.

The subject of the conference, safety and sustainability in rural delta regions, will be introduced in a series of thematic sessions. International keynote speakers and co-referees will open the debate and introduce the parallel sessions and workshops.

The call for abstracts and registration will be open from August 22. The thematic sessions will address the following subjects:

• Drowning deltas
• Coastal management and ecosystem goods & services
• Designing deltas
• Integrated approaches
• Sustainable solutions: building with nature
• Rural economy: case studies on aquaculture, tourism and renewable energy

And of course you will be able to have a look at all developments in the Southwest Delta of the Netherlands during the especially for you organized guided tours.

Join us, experience interactive workshops and exchange your knowledge! Please forward this message to people interested.

We hope to welcome you at our Dynamic Deltas International Conference, 17 - 20 April 2012!

Tineke Huizinga, president Steering Committee Conference Dynamic Deltas
Prof. Aad Smaal, chair Scientific Committee Conference Dynamic Deltas

More information:
W Dynamic Deltas website
E secretariate(at)dynamicdeltas.org

Please sign up here to receive upcoming news on the Dynamic Deltas Conference.

The “Towards Sustainable Companies: Identifying New Avenues” August 29 & 30, 2011 conference organized by the University of Oslo.
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The “Trade, Corporations and Natural Resources” June 30, 2011 conference organized by the Bristol Law School of the University of West of England.
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