Academy Events
Wednesday, 25 October 2023
It is with a heavy heart that we inform the Academy community of the death of Dr. Emily Webster. Most recently, Emily was employed at Cambridge University as an Assistant Professor in Environmental Law. She was also an Official Fellow of Queens’ College and Director of Studies in the Department of Land Economy. Previously, Emily completed her Masters in Transnational Law and PhD in Law at King’s College London. Her PhD was focused on the response of law to climate change. Alongside her PhD studies, Emily was a highly valued member of the teaching teams for tort and environmental law.
Emily was an active and committed member of the environmental law academy, serving as a member of the Hughes Hall Centre for Climate Engagement, a Research Fellow for the Earth System Governance research project, and as a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Emily’s exceptional research and teaching contributions will serve as a lasting testament to her unwavering dedication to furthering our understanding of the law and its role in fostering a sustainable planet.
Within the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Emily was a regular attendee of Academy Colloquia, and will be remembered as a genuine and warm colleague who was always willing to exchange ideas and welcome new scholars. Colleagues able to spend time with her at the most recent Colloquium in Joensuu will recall her distinguished presentation on private law structures to address the planetary crisis, and shared dialogue over her planned future research.
Memorials are being collected for her family by her colleagues and friends at King’s College London. Please email them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Thursday, 23 March 2023
Monday, 08 August 2022
Each year the Academy receives a number of requests to support travel to and attendance at the Annual Colloquium. We are pleased to announce that the Academy has a small amount of funding to partly/fully support the participation of a limited number of members at the Annual Colloquium.
Monday, 08 August 2022
The Governing Board of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (the Academy) is pleased to announce that the Academy have funds to provide small grants in support of research and educational activities. This may include the holding of a regional workshop/meeting/event for members of the Academy.
Tuesday, 08 January 2019
It is with tremendous sadness that we mourn the death of Associate Professor Anita Rønne who died on 13th December after a short illness.
Anita was employed at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen from 1985 and was a highly respected and well liked member of the IUCN Academy. Her expertise in Energy law, Climate Change Law and International Environmental Law meant that her work intersected with the work of many of our members and she was a good friend and colleague to many more.
Anita had many collaborators in Denmark and more widely and participated in numerous international research collaborations on both conferences and publications. She was a prolific researcher including classics such as “Energy Law in Europe – National, EU and International Regulation” of which she was a co-editor.
Anita’s innovative approach to environmental law research often led the field. One of her last contributions explores smart technology and regulation. Fortunately, Anita lived to see her co-edited book on this topic "Ret SMART. Om smart teknologi og regulering” (About smart technology and regulation) published in October.
Anita was also an innovative teacher. She was, for example, one of the initiators of Copenhagen’s International Energy Law and Sustainability Masters and also taught on their Climate Change Law Masters.
We remember Anita as a very generous person, always willing to cooperate with others, and encouraging of early career academics. She will be deeply missed by our community.
Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Distinguished Education Award Senior Faculty
Catherine Iorns Magallanes
Catherine Iorns is a Reader in the School of Law at Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has more than 25 years' experience teaching a range of subjects, including statutory interpretation, indigenous rights, and international law, in addition to a range of environmental law courses. Catherine has focused on pedagogy from the beginning of her career, with presentations and papers on teaching international law, for example, in the 1990s. This has continued today, with her recently undertaking a Higher Education Learning and Teaching course, writing on changing ideas of effective innovations in environmental law teaching.
Catherine is also a well-respected researcher in both indigenous rights and environmental law. Her research achievements include ‘A’ rankings for her written outputs, two writing awards for environmental law papers from the New Zealand Resource Management Law Association, and citations in decisions by the New Zealand EPA. She has recently held external research contracts in relation to precaution and ecosystem-based management, and a current National Science Challenge contract in relation to climate adaptation.
Catherine is also a national Board member of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Academic Advisor to the New Zealand Council of Legal Education. She is a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and a member of the Bioethics Panel for the New Zealand Biological Heritage National Science Challenge.
Distinguished Education Award Emerging Faculty
Estair Van Wagner
Estair Van Wagner is an assistant professor at Osgoode Hall Law School where she is a co-director of the Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of property, land use planning, and natural resource law. Estair has developed a unique place-based approach to legal education, building on her relational approach to research about land use conflicts and people-place relations. She is a member of the organizing committee for Osgoode’s Anishinaabe law camp, developed in partnership with the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation.
Prior to joining Osgoode, Estair was a lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law, where... Read More...
Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Distinguished Scholarship Award, Senior Faculty
Sheila R. Foster
Sheila R. Foster is a joint Professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University. Prior to joining Georgetown, she was a University Professor and the Albert A. Walsh Professor of Real Estate, Land Use and Property Law at Fordham University. She also co-directed the Fordham Urban Law Center and was a founder of the Fordham University Urban Consortium. Prior to joining Fordham, she was a Professor of Law at the Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.
Professor Foster is the author of numerous publications on environmental law, and is one of the country’s leading scholars on environmental justice. She is co-author of the classic text From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Environmental Justice Movement (NYU Press 2001) (with Luke Cole) and co-editor of The Law of Environmental Justice: Theories and Procedures to Address Disproportionate Risks (American Bar Association 2009) (with Michael Gerrard). Over the last two decades, she has worked with government agencies, non-government organizations, scholars, and policymakers to reform environmental and land use policies and practices consistent with the principles of environmental justice. Her most recent work explores city growth and governance through the lens of the “commons,” bringing the analytical lens of her environmental law and policy to the city and the management of urban resources. Her latest article, The City as a Commons, is published in the Yale Law and Policy Review (with Christian Iaione) and is the basis of a forthcoming book for MIT Press.
Professor Foster has been involved on many levels with environmental and urban policy. Currently she sits on the New York City Panel on Climate Change (and co-chairs one of its working groups on community-based equitable adaptation), is chair of the advisory committee of the Global Parliament of Mayors, and an advisory board member of the Marron Institute for Urban Management at NYU.
Distinguished Scholarship Award, Emerging Faculty
Saiful Karim
Associate Professor (Dr) Saiful Karim is the Director (International) of the School of Law at the Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. Dr Karim has held Visiting Faculty position at Sydney University and a consultant at the University of the South Pacific and a visiting research fellow at the National University of Singapore. Dr. Karim has published extensively in the fields of public international law and environmental law and has presented research papers in many conferences and workshops organised by various academic... Read More...
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
2017 Senior Scholarship Award
Jonathan Verschuuren
Professor of International and European Environmental Law - Tilburg Sustainability Center and Tilburg Law School
Extraordinary professor North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow - Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law, University of Sydney
Jonathan is a long time member of the IUCN World Commission for Environmental Law and contributor to the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. He is currently a professor of International and European Environmental law at Tilburg Law School, Netherlands and has served as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Australian Centre for Climate and the Environment, University of Sydney and an Extraordinary professor North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Over the past 25 years, Jonathan has published more than 250 academic publications in the field of environmental law. His research comprises almost all sectors of environmental policy such as air, water, soil, waste, and biodiversity, as well as more general topics such as corporate social responsibility, the precautionary principle, transboundary cooperation, and environmental justice. He has led international book projects involving a variety of international authors, for instance: International Governance and Law. State Regulation and Non-State Law (Edward Elgar: 2008) and The Impact of Legislation. A Critical Analysis of Ex Ante Evaluation (Martinus Nijhoff/Brill: 2009).
Jonathan’s work also includes collaboration in several international research programmes, such as programme in which a South African-Dutch team of legal scholars intensively worked together on environmental governance issues in southern Africa (2005-2008); and an EU funded programme of a group of, mostly economists, from various European research institutes on the combined impact of climate change instruments, such as emissions trading and carbon taxes (2012-2015). In 2015, Jonathan received a prestigious Marie Skolodowska Curie fellowship under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research program for a two year project aimed at developing a regulatory framework to stimulate farmers to convert to climate smart agriculture. Some of his recent publications on this topic include: J. Verschuuren, Towards a Regulatory Design for Reducing Emissions from... Read More...
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Senior teaching award
PROFESSOR DONNA CRAIG
Donna Craig is a specialist in international, comparative and national environmental law and policy at Western Sydney University. She was one of the earliest academics to specialise in environmental law (from 1976) and has researched and taught across a wide range of environmental law areas and jurisdictions. In particular, she was a pioneer in the development of curricula and teaching in Comparative Environmental Law (focusing on the Asia and Pacific Regions), International Environmental Law, Sustainable Development Law, Corporate Environmental Law, Australian Environmental and Planning Law and Comparative Indigenous Governance Regimes. She has also made significant research and teaching contributions in aspects of Biodiversity Law (relating to recognition of knowledge and practices of Indigenous and local communities, intellectual and cultural property rights, recognition of customary laws and community based environmental management), participatory approaches to environmental decision-making, environmental impact assessment and social impact assessment.
Donna also held a Research Chair as Professor of Desert Knowledge, Charles Darwin University. She has over 40 years experience in environmental law research, legal practice, teaching and working with communities, NGO’s, environmental organisations, governments and corporations. Her research and publications emphasize the social, cultural and human rights dimensions of legislation, programs, impact assessment and sustainable development. Her climate change and water law research includes climate adaptation, resource management, capacity building and Indigenous cultural values. She also works with Indigenous and local communities developing natural resource based livelihoods and advising on national and international legal regimes. Donna served as Foundation Board Member of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Regional Vice-Chair for Oceania of the IUCN Commission of Environmental Law, Regional Governor of the International Council on Environmental Law, Board Member of the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority and Member of Advisory Board of Greenland-based International Training Centre of Indigenous Peoples. She is currently Deputy Director of the International Centre for Ocean Governance (ICOG) at the University of Western Sydney delivering capacity building training for the Bangladesh judiciary (2017-2020).
Members' Events
This page provides information about events -- workshops and conferences -- that are being organized by member institutions of the IUCN Academy, in different regions of the world. These upcoming events focus on a range of issues of environmental law.
You will find a list of upcoming events, and a link to the agenda and registration material, if available, and a contact e-mail.
Wednesday, 25 October 2023
It is with a heavy heart that we inform the Academy community of the death of Dr. Emily Webster. Most recently, Emily was employed at Cambridge University as an Assistant Professor in Environmental Law. She was also an Official Fellow of Queens’ College and Director of Studies in the Department of Land Economy. Previously, Emily completed her Masters in Transnational Law and PhD in Law at King’s College London. Her PhD was focused on the response of law to climate change. Alongside her PhD studies, Emily was a highly valued member of the teaching teams for tort and environmental law.
Emily was an active and committed member of the environmental law academy, serving as a member of the Hughes Hall Centre for Climate Engagement, a Research Fellow for the Earth System Governance research project, and as a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Emily’s exceptional research and teaching contributions will serve as a lasting testament to her unwavering dedication to furthering our understanding of the law and its role in fostering a sustainable planet.
Within the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Emily was a regular attendee of Academy Colloquia, and will be remembered as a genuine and warm colleague who was always willing to exchange ideas and welcome new scholars. Colleagues able to spend time with her at the most recent Colloquium in Joensuu will recall her distinguished presentation on private law structures to address the planetary crisis, and shared dialogue over her planned future research.
Memorials are being collected for her family by her colleagues and friends at King’s College London. Please email them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Thursday, 23 March 2023
Monday, 08 August 2022
Each year the Academy receives a number of requests to support travel to and attendance at the Annual Colloquium. We are pleased to announce that the Academy has a small amount of funding to partly/fully support the participation of a limited number of members at the Annual Colloquium.
Monday, 08 August 2022
The Governing Board of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (the Academy) is pleased to announce that the Academy have funds to provide small grants in support of research and educational activities. This may include the holding of a regional workshop/meeting/event for members of the Academy.
Tuesday, 08 January 2019
It is with tremendous sadness that we mourn the death of Associate Professor Anita Rønne who died on 13th December after a short illness.
Anita was employed at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen from 1985 and was a highly respected and well liked member of the IUCN Academy. Her expertise in Energy law, Climate Change Law and International Environmental Law meant that her work intersected with the work of many of our members and she was a good friend and colleague to many more.
Anita had many collaborators in Denmark and more widely and participated in numerous international research collaborations on both conferences and publications. She was a prolific researcher including classics such as “Energy Law in Europe – National, EU and International Regulation” of which she was a co-editor.
Anita’s innovative approach to environmental law research often led the field. One of her last contributions explores smart technology and regulation. Fortunately, Anita lived to see her co-edited book on this topic "Ret SMART. Om smart teknologi og regulering” (About smart technology and regulation) published in October.
Anita was also an innovative teacher. She was, for example, one of the initiators of Copenhagen’s International Energy Law and Sustainability Masters and also taught on their Climate Change Law Masters.
We remember Anita as a very generous person, always willing to cooperate with others, and encouraging of early career academics. She will be deeply missed by our community.
Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Distinguished Education Award Senior Faculty
Catherine Iorns Magallanes
Catherine Iorns is a Reader in the School of Law at Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has more than 25 years' experience teaching a range of subjects, including statutory interpretation, indigenous rights, and international law, in addition to a range of environmental law courses. Catherine has focused on pedagogy from the beginning of her career, with presentations and papers on teaching international law, for example, in the 1990s. This has continued today, with her recently undertaking a Higher Education Learning and Teaching course, writing on changing ideas of effective innovations in environmental law teaching.
Catherine is also a well-respected researcher in both indigenous rights and environmental law. Her research achievements include ‘A’ rankings for her written outputs, two writing awards for environmental law papers from the New Zealand Resource Management Law Association, and citations in decisions by the New Zealand EPA. She has recently held external research contracts in relation to precaution and ecosystem-based management, and a current National Science Challenge contract in relation to climate adaptation.
Catherine is also a national Board member of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Academic Advisor to the New Zealand Council of Legal Education. She is a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and a member of the Bioethics Panel for the New Zealand Biological Heritage National Science Challenge.
Distinguished Education Award Emerging Faculty
Estair Van Wagner
Estair Van Wagner is an assistant professor at Osgoode Hall Law School where she is a co-director of the Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of property, land use planning, and natural resource law. Estair has developed a unique place-based approach to legal education, building on her relational approach to research about land use conflicts and people-place relations. She is a member of the organizing committee for Osgoode’s Anishinaabe law camp, developed in partnership with the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation.
Prior to joining Osgoode, Estair was a lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law, where... Read More...
Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Distinguished Scholarship Award, Senior Faculty
Sheila R. Foster
Sheila R. Foster is a joint Professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University. Prior to joining Georgetown, she was a University Professor and the Albert A. Walsh Professor of Real Estate, Land Use and Property Law at Fordham University. She also co-directed the Fordham Urban Law Center and was a founder of the Fordham University Urban Consortium. Prior to joining Fordham, she was a Professor of Law at the Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.
Professor Foster is the author of numerous publications on environmental law, and is one of the country’s leading scholars on environmental justice. She is co-author of the classic text From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Environmental Justice Movement (NYU Press 2001) (with Luke Cole) and co-editor of The Law of Environmental Justice: Theories and Procedures to Address Disproportionate Risks (American Bar Association 2009) (with Michael Gerrard). Over the last two decades, she has worked with government agencies, non-government organizations, scholars, and policymakers to reform environmental and land use policies and practices consistent with the principles of environmental justice. Her most recent work explores city growth and governance through the lens of the “commons,” bringing the analytical lens of her environmental law and policy to the city and the management of urban resources. Her latest article, The City as a Commons, is published in the Yale Law and Policy Review (with Christian Iaione) and is the basis of a forthcoming book for MIT Press.
Professor Foster has been involved on many levels with environmental and urban policy. Currently she sits on the New York City Panel on Climate Change (and co-chairs one of its working groups on community-based equitable adaptation), is chair of the advisory committee of the Global Parliament of Mayors, and an advisory board member of the Marron Institute for Urban Management at NYU.
Distinguished Scholarship Award, Emerging Faculty
Saiful Karim
Associate Professor (Dr) Saiful Karim is the Director (International) of the School of Law at the Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. Dr Karim has held Visiting Faculty position at Sydney University and a consultant at the University of the South Pacific and a visiting research fellow at the National University of Singapore. Dr. Karim has published extensively in the fields of public international law and environmental law and has presented research papers in many conferences and workshops organised by various academic... Read More...
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
2017 Senior Scholarship Award
Jonathan Verschuuren
Professor of International and European Environmental Law - Tilburg Sustainability Center and Tilburg Law School
Extraordinary professor North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow - Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law, University of Sydney
Jonathan is a long time member of the IUCN World Commission for Environmental Law and contributor to the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. He is currently a professor of International and European Environmental law at Tilburg Law School, Netherlands and has served as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Australian Centre for Climate and the Environment, University of Sydney and an Extraordinary professor North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Over the past 25 years, Jonathan has published more than 250 academic publications in the field of environmental law. His research comprises almost all sectors of environmental policy such as air, water, soil, waste, and biodiversity, as well as more general topics such as corporate social responsibility, the precautionary principle, transboundary cooperation, and environmental justice. He has led international book projects involving a variety of international authors, for instance: International Governance and Law. State Regulation and Non-State Law (Edward Elgar: 2008) and The Impact of Legislation. A Critical Analysis of Ex Ante Evaluation (Martinus Nijhoff/Brill: 2009).
Jonathan’s work also includes collaboration in several international research programmes, such as programme in which a South African-Dutch team of legal scholars intensively worked together on environmental governance issues in southern Africa (2005-2008); and an EU funded programme of a group of, mostly economists, from various European research institutes on the combined impact of climate change instruments, such as emissions trading and carbon taxes (2012-2015). In 2015, Jonathan received a prestigious Marie Skolodowska Curie fellowship under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research program for a two year project aimed at developing a regulatory framework to stimulate farmers to convert to climate smart agriculture. Some of his recent publications on this topic include: J. Verschuuren, Towards a Regulatory Design for Reducing Emissions from... Read More...
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Senior teaching award
PROFESSOR DONNA CRAIG
Donna Craig is a specialist in international, comparative and national environmental law and policy at Western Sydney University. She was one of the earliest academics to specialise in environmental law (from 1976) and has researched and taught across a wide range of environmental law areas and jurisdictions. In particular, she was a pioneer in the development of curricula and teaching in Comparative Environmental Law (focusing on the Asia and Pacific Regions), International Environmental Law, Sustainable Development Law, Corporate Environmental Law, Australian Environmental and Planning Law and Comparative Indigenous Governance Regimes. She has also made significant research and teaching contributions in aspects of Biodiversity Law (relating to recognition of knowledge and practices of Indigenous and local communities, intellectual and cultural property rights, recognition of customary laws and community based environmental management), participatory approaches to environmental decision-making, environmental impact assessment and social impact assessment.
Donna also held a Research Chair as Professor of Desert Knowledge, Charles Darwin University. She has over 40 years experience in environmental law research, legal practice, teaching and working with communities, NGO’s, environmental organisations, governments and corporations. Her research and publications emphasize the social, cultural and human rights dimensions of legislation, programs, impact assessment and sustainable development. Her climate change and water law research includes climate adaptation, resource management, capacity building and Indigenous cultural values. She also works with Indigenous and local communities developing natural resource based livelihoods and advising on national and international legal regimes. Donna served as Foundation Board Member of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Regional Vice-Chair for Oceania of the IUCN Commission of Environmental Law, Regional Governor of the International Council on Environmental Law, Board Member of the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority and Member of Advisory Board of Greenland-based International Training Centre of Indigenous Peoples. She is currently Deputy Director of the International Centre for Ocean Governance (ICOG) at the University of Western Sydney delivering capacity building training for the Bangladesh judiciary (2017-2020).
Other Events
These events are of general interest and this page will be updated regularly.
Wednesday, 25 October 2023
It is with a heavy heart that we inform the Academy community of the death of Dr. Emily Webster. Most recently, Emily was employed at Cambridge University as an Assistant Professor in Environmental Law. She was also an Official Fellow of Queens’ College and Director of Studies in the Department of Land Economy. Previously, Emily completed her Masters in Transnational Law and PhD in Law at King’s College London. Her PhD was focused on the response of law to climate change. Alongside her PhD studies, Emily was a highly valued member of the teaching teams for tort and environmental law.
Emily was an active and committed member of the environmental law academy, serving as a member of the Hughes Hall Centre for Climate Engagement, a Research Fellow for the Earth System Governance research project, and as a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Emily’s exceptional research and teaching contributions will serve as a lasting testament to her unwavering dedication to furthering our understanding of the law and its role in fostering a sustainable planet.
Within the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Emily was a regular attendee of Academy Colloquia, and will be remembered as a genuine and warm colleague who was always willing to exchange ideas and welcome new scholars. Colleagues able to spend time with her at the most recent Colloquium in Joensuu will recall her distinguished presentation on private law structures to address the planetary crisis, and shared dialogue over her planned future research.
Memorials are being collected for her family by her colleagues and friends at King’s College London. Please email them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Thursday, 23 March 2023
Monday, 08 August 2022
Each year the Academy receives a number of requests to support travel to and attendance at the Annual Colloquium. We are pleased to announce that the Academy has a small amount of funding to partly/fully support the participation of a limited number of members at the Annual Colloquium.
Monday, 08 August 2022
The Governing Board of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (the Academy) is pleased to announce that the Academy have funds to provide small grants in support of research and educational activities. This may include the holding of a regional workshop/meeting/event for members of the Academy.
Tuesday, 08 January 2019
It is with tremendous sadness that we mourn the death of Associate Professor Anita Rønne who died on 13th December after a short illness.
Anita was employed at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen from 1985 and was a highly respected and well liked member of the IUCN Academy. Her expertise in Energy law, Climate Change Law and International Environmental Law meant that her work intersected with the work of many of our members and she was a good friend and colleague to many more.
Anita had many collaborators in Denmark and more widely and participated in numerous international research collaborations on both conferences and publications. She was a prolific researcher including classics such as “Energy Law in Europe – National, EU and International Regulation” of which she was a co-editor.
Anita’s innovative approach to environmental law research often led the field. One of her last contributions explores smart technology and regulation. Fortunately, Anita lived to see her co-edited book on this topic "Ret SMART. Om smart teknologi og regulering” (About smart technology and regulation) published in October.
Anita was also an innovative teacher. She was, for example, one of the initiators of Copenhagen’s International Energy Law and Sustainability Masters and also taught on their Climate Change Law Masters.
We remember Anita as a very generous person, always willing to cooperate with others, and encouraging of early career academics. She will be deeply missed by our community.
Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Distinguished Education Award Senior Faculty
Catherine Iorns Magallanes
Catherine Iorns is a Reader in the School of Law at Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has more than 25 years' experience teaching a range of subjects, including statutory interpretation, indigenous rights, and international law, in addition to a range of environmental law courses. Catherine has focused on pedagogy from the beginning of her career, with presentations and papers on teaching international law, for example, in the 1990s. This has continued today, with her recently undertaking a Higher Education Learning and Teaching course, writing on changing ideas of effective innovations in environmental law teaching.
Catherine is also a well-respected researcher in both indigenous rights and environmental law. Her research achievements include ‘A’ rankings for her written outputs, two writing awards for environmental law papers from the New Zealand Resource Management Law Association, and citations in decisions by the New Zealand EPA. She has recently held external research contracts in relation to precaution and ecosystem-based management, and a current National Science Challenge contract in relation to climate adaptation.
Catherine is also a national Board member of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Academic Advisor to the New Zealand Council of Legal Education. She is a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and a member of the Bioethics Panel for the New Zealand Biological Heritage National Science Challenge.
Distinguished Education Award Emerging Faculty
Estair Van Wagner
Estair Van Wagner is an assistant professor at Osgoode Hall Law School where she is a co-director of the Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of property, land use planning, and natural resource law. Estair has developed a unique place-based approach to legal education, building on her relational approach to research about land use conflicts and people-place relations. She is a member of the organizing committee for Osgoode’s Anishinaabe law camp, developed in partnership with the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation.
Prior to joining Osgoode, Estair was a lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law, where... Read More...
Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Distinguished Scholarship Award, Senior Faculty
Sheila R. Foster
Sheila R. Foster is a joint Professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University. Prior to joining Georgetown, she was a University Professor and the Albert A. Walsh Professor of Real Estate, Land Use and Property Law at Fordham University. She also co-directed the Fordham Urban Law Center and was a founder of the Fordham University Urban Consortium. Prior to joining Fordham, she was a Professor of Law at the Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.
Professor Foster is the author of numerous publications on environmental law, and is one of the country’s leading scholars on environmental justice. She is co-author of the classic text From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Environmental Justice Movement (NYU Press 2001) (with Luke Cole) and co-editor of The Law of Environmental Justice: Theories and Procedures to Address Disproportionate Risks (American Bar Association 2009) (with Michael Gerrard). Over the last two decades, she has worked with government agencies, non-government organizations, scholars, and policymakers to reform environmental and land use policies and practices consistent with the principles of environmental justice. Her most recent work explores city growth and governance through the lens of the “commons,” bringing the analytical lens of her environmental law and policy to the city and the management of urban resources. Her latest article, The City as a Commons, is published in the Yale Law and Policy Review (with Christian Iaione) and is the basis of a forthcoming book for MIT Press.
Professor Foster has been involved on many levels with environmental and urban policy. Currently she sits on the New York City Panel on Climate Change (and co-chairs one of its working groups on community-based equitable adaptation), is chair of the advisory committee of the Global Parliament of Mayors, and an advisory board member of the Marron Institute for Urban Management at NYU.
Distinguished Scholarship Award, Emerging Faculty
Saiful Karim
Associate Professor (Dr) Saiful Karim is the Director (International) of the School of Law at the Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. Dr Karim has held Visiting Faculty position at Sydney University and a consultant at the University of the South Pacific and a visiting research fellow at the National University of Singapore. Dr. Karim has published extensively in the fields of public international law and environmental law and has presented research papers in many conferences and workshops organised by various academic... Read More...
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
2017 Senior Scholarship Award
Jonathan Verschuuren
Professor of International and European Environmental Law - Tilburg Sustainability Center and Tilburg Law School
Extraordinary professor North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow - Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law, University of Sydney
Jonathan is a long time member of the IUCN World Commission for Environmental Law and contributor to the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. He is currently a professor of International and European Environmental law at Tilburg Law School, Netherlands and has served as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Australian Centre for Climate and the Environment, University of Sydney and an Extraordinary professor North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Over the past 25 years, Jonathan has published more than 250 academic publications in the field of environmental law. His research comprises almost all sectors of environmental policy such as air, water, soil, waste, and biodiversity, as well as more general topics such as corporate social responsibility, the precautionary principle, transboundary cooperation, and environmental justice. He has led international book projects involving a variety of international authors, for instance: International Governance and Law. State Regulation and Non-State Law (Edward Elgar: 2008) and The Impact of Legislation. A Critical Analysis of Ex Ante Evaluation (Martinus Nijhoff/Brill: 2009).
Jonathan’s work also includes collaboration in several international research programmes, such as programme in which a South African-Dutch team of legal scholars intensively worked together on environmental governance issues in southern Africa (2005-2008); and an EU funded programme of a group of, mostly economists, from various European research institutes on the combined impact of climate change instruments, such as emissions trading and carbon taxes (2012-2015). In 2015, Jonathan received a prestigious Marie Skolodowska Curie fellowship under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research program for a two year project aimed at developing a regulatory framework to stimulate farmers to convert to climate smart agriculture. Some of his recent publications on this topic include: J. Verschuuren, Towards a Regulatory Design for Reducing Emissions from... Read More...
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Senior teaching award
PROFESSOR DONNA CRAIG
Donna Craig is a specialist in international, comparative and national environmental law and policy at Western Sydney University. She was one of the earliest academics to specialise in environmental law (from 1976) and has researched and taught across a wide range of environmental law areas and jurisdictions. In particular, she was a pioneer in the development of curricula and teaching in Comparative Environmental Law (focusing on the Asia and Pacific Regions), International Environmental Law, Sustainable Development Law, Corporate Environmental Law, Australian Environmental and Planning Law and Comparative Indigenous Governance Regimes. She has also made significant research and teaching contributions in aspects of Biodiversity Law (relating to recognition of knowledge and practices of Indigenous and local communities, intellectual and cultural property rights, recognition of customary laws and community based environmental management), participatory approaches to environmental decision-making, environmental impact assessment and social impact assessment.
Donna also held a Research Chair as Professor of Desert Knowledge, Charles Darwin University. She has over 40 years experience in environmental law research, legal practice, teaching and working with communities, NGO’s, environmental organisations, governments and corporations. Her research and publications emphasize the social, cultural and human rights dimensions of legislation, programs, impact assessment and sustainable development. Her climate change and water law research includes climate adaptation, resource management, capacity building and Indigenous cultural values. She also works with Indigenous and local communities developing natural resource based livelihoods and advising on national and international legal regimes. Donna served as Foundation Board Member of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Regional Vice-Chair for Oceania of the IUCN Commission of Environmental Law, Regional Governor of the International Council on Environmental Law, Board Member of the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority and Member of Advisory Board of Greenland-based International Training Centre of Indigenous Peoples. She is currently Deputy Director of the International Centre for Ocean Governance (ICOG) at the University of Western Sydney delivering capacity building training for the Bangladesh judiciary (2017-2020).
Events Archive
This page provides a listing of past events of the IUCN Academy
Wednesday, 26 October 2016
Louis Kotze has a new book: 'Global Environmental Constitutionalism in the Anthropocene'. If you are interested in a copy, please contact Emma Platt, Hart Publishing, for a discount at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and let her know you are an Academy member.
Tuesday, 13 June 2017
While environmental protection and human rights are traditionally conceptualized in a synergistic fashion, the paper unveils through a series of cases how these two legitimate goals can enter into collision and, most importantly, which adjudicative topoi the CJEU employs to address these normative conflicts. The paper demonstrates how Luxembourg’s judges have developed specific hermeneutics that stand far from formal techniques of interpretation. In exploring the CJEU’s solipsistic character, its subtle process of semantic law-making embedded in its recourse to the ever-expanding ‘general interest’ to environmental protection, and its reliance on a managerial vernacular of expertise, the analysis not only elucidates changing patterns of fundamental rights adjudication but also comments on the increasingly complex legal encounter between human rights and environmental protection.
Marie-Catherine Petersmann presentation at 2016 Oslo Colloquium
Marie-Catherine Petersmann
Marie-Catherine Petersmann is a third year PhD researcher in International Law at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy. Her research focuses on the conflicting relationship between environmental protection and human rights. More specifically, she investigates how international human rights adjudicators manage specific conflicts of norms – when environmental protection legislations negatively impact human rights – and how they reconcile these two legitimate yet sometimes colliding legal obligations. Before beginning her academic career, Marie worked for the UNHCR and for the FIDH in Geneva. Marie’s LinkedIn profile can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-catherine-petersmann-bb9517128/
Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Distinguished Scholarship Award, Senior Faculty
Sheila R. Foster
Sheila R. Foster is a joint Professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University. Prior to joining Georgetown, she was a University Professor and the Albert A. Walsh Professor of Real Estate, Land Use and Property Law at Fordham University. She also co-directed the Fordham Urban Law Center and was a founder of the Fordham University Urban Consortium. Prior to joining Fordham, she was a Professor of Law at the Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.
Professor Foster is the author of numerous publications on environmental law, and is one of the country’s leading scholars on environmental justice. She is co-author of the classic text From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Environmental Justice Movement (NYU Press 2001) (with Luke Cole) and co-editor of The Law of Environmental Justice: Theories and Procedures to Address Disproportionate Risks (American Bar Association 2009) (with Michael Gerrard). Over the last two decades, she has worked with government agencies, non-government organizations, scholars, and policymakers to reform environmental and land use policies and practices consistent with the principles of environmental justice. Her most recent work explores city growth and governance through the lens of the “commons,” bringing the analytical lens of her environmental law and policy to the city and the management of urban resources. Her latest article, The City as a Commons, is published in the Yale Law and Policy Review (with Christian Iaione) and is the basis of a forthcoming book for MIT Press.
Professor Foster has been involved on many levels with environmental and urban policy. Currently she sits on the New York City Panel on Climate Change (and co-chairs one of its working groups on community-based equitable adaptation), is chair of the advisory committee of the Global Parliament of Mayors, and an advisory board member of the Marron Institute for Urban Management at NYU.
Distinguished Scholarship Award, Emerging Faculty
Saiful Karim
Associate Professor (Dr) Saiful Karim is the Director (International) of the School of Law at the Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. Dr Karim has held Visiting Faculty position at Sydney University and a consultant at the University of the South Pacific and a visiting research fellow at the National University of Singapore. Dr. Karim has published extensively in the fields of public international law and environmental law and has presented research papers in many conferences and workshops organised by various academic... Read More...
Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Distinguished Education Award Senior Faculty
Catherine Iorns Magallanes
Catherine Iorns is a Reader in the School of Law at Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has more than 25 years' experience teaching a range of subjects, including statutory interpretation, indigenous rights, and international law, in addition to a range of environmental law courses. Catherine has focused on pedagogy from the beginning of her career, with presentations and papers on teaching international law, for example, in the 1990s. This has continued today, with her recently undertaking a Higher Education Learning and Teaching course, writing on changing ideas of effective innovations in environmental law teaching.
Catherine is also a well-respected researcher in both indigenous rights and environmental law. Her research achievements include ‘A’ rankings for her written outputs, two writing awards for environmental law papers from the New Zealand Resource Management Law Association, and citations in decisions by the New Zealand EPA. She has recently held external research contracts in relation to precaution and ecosystem-based management, and a current National Science Challenge contract in relation to climate adaptation.
Catherine is also a national Board member of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Academic Advisor to the New Zealand Council of Legal Education. She is a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and a member of the Bioethics Panel for the New Zealand Biological Heritage National Science Challenge.
Distinguished Education Award Emerging Faculty
Estair Van Wagner
Estair Van Wagner is an assistant professor at Osgoode Hall Law School where she is a co-director of the Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of property, land use planning, and natural resource law. Estair has developed a unique place-based approach to legal education, building on her relational approach to research about land use conflicts and people-place relations. She is a member of the organizing committee for Osgoode’s Anishinaabe law camp, developed in partnership with the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation.
Prior to joining Osgoode, Estair was a lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law, where... Read More...
Tuesday, 08 January 2019
It is with tremendous sadness that we mourn the death of Associate Professor Anita Rønne who died on 13th December after a short illness.
Anita was employed at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen from 1985 and was a highly respected and well liked member of the IUCN Academy. Her expertise in Energy law, Climate Change Law and International Environmental Law meant that her work intersected with the work of many of our members and she was a good friend and colleague to many more.
Anita had many collaborators in Denmark and more widely and participated in numerous international research collaborations on both conferences and publications. She was a prolific researcher including classics such as “Energy Law in Europe – National, EU and International Regulation” of which she was a co-editor.
Anita’s innovative approach to environmental law research often led the field. One of her last contributions explores smart technology and regulation. Fortunately, Anita lived to see her co-edited book on this topic "Ret SMART. Om smart teknologi og regulering” (About smart technology and regulation) published in October.
Anita was also an innovative teacher. She was, for example, one of the initiators of Copenhagen’s International Energy Law and Sustainability Masters and also taught on their Climate Change Law Masters.
We remember Anita as a very generous person, always willing to cooperate with others, and encouraging of early career academics. She will be deeply missed by our community.
Thursday, 23 March 2023
Wednesday, 25 October 2023
It is with a heavy heart that we inform the Academy community of the death of Dr. Emily Webster. Most recently, Emily was employed at Cambridge University as an Assistant Professor in Environmental Law. She was also an Official Fellow of Queens’ College and Director of Studies in the Department of Land Economy. Previously, Emily completed her Masters in Transnational Law and PhD in Law at King’s College London. Her PhD was focused on the response of law to climate change. Alongside her PhD studies, Emily was a highly valued member of the teaching teams for tort and environmental law.
Emily was an active and committed member of the environmental law academy, serving as a member of the Hughes Hall Centre for Climate Engagement, a Research Fellow for the Earth System Governance research project, and as a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Emily’s exceptional research and teaching contributions will serve as a lasting testament to her unwavering dedication to furthering our understanding of the law and its role in fostering a sustainable planet.
Within the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Emily was a regular attendee of Academy Colloquia, and will be remembered as a genuine and warm colleague who was always willing to exchange ideas and welcome new scholars. Colleagues able to spend time with her at the most recent Colloquium in Joensuu will recall her distinguished presentation on private law structures to address the planetary crisis, and shared dialogue over her planned future research.
Memorials are being collected for her family by her colleagues and friends at King’s College London. Please email them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Wednesday, 02 December 2015
Amber Prasad Pant- Climate Change and Forest Management in Nepal
Andri Wibisana- Law Enforcement for Forest Fires in Indonesia: Critical Comments
Carina Costa de Oliveira- The limits of international environmental law related to the protection of marine resources in the context of the seabed exploration and exploitation
Dhany Rahmawan- Public Participation in Indonesia Environmental Management
Dhiana Puspitawati Rachmad Safa'at- Legal Framework on Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
Haifeng Deng- Public Participation in Energy Area of China
Idowu Adegbite- Clinical Legal Education in Nigeria
Indrani Sarma- Democratic Forest Governance in India and the Forest Rights Act
Laely Nurhidayah- Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity in Indonesia: Opportunities and Challenges
Marcia Fajardo- Biodiversity vs Agriculture- Enemies or Allies? The agroforestry case within the Brazilian legal framework
Mas Achmad Santosa- Preventing and Combating Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Indonesia
Mekete Bekele Tekle- Climate-Resilient Green Economy: Ethiopia's Strategy for Sustainable Development
Nawaporn Saeneewong- Regional cooperation under the rights and/or obligations to establish marine protected areas in the international conventions
Rachmad Safaat- Paradigm Reconstruction of Forest Management System Based on Ecological Sustainability
Satya Tripathi- Climate Change in Indonesia and its impact upon Biodiversity
Siradj Okta- ASEAN Economic Community: Amplification of Ecocide?
Solange Teles de Silva & team- Marine Protected Areas in Brazil and the Effectiveness of the Participation Principle
Svitlana Romanko- The Biodiversity Policy and the Forest Law of Ukraine: the Road to Where?
Yilin Pei-
Thursday, 11 February 2016
The IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Education Awards recognize significant and diverse contributions to education and learning on environmental law by Senior and Emerging faculty. Such contributions include teaching specialized courses to undergraduate and graduate students, delivering clinical programs that expose students to the practice of environmental law, and supervising students who are undertaking advanced research in Masters and PhD programs.
The 2015 Education Award winners are announced below.
Senior Education Award : Professor Charles Okidi
Professor Charles Okidi
Professor Charles Okidi is associated with the School of Law and the Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. The following commentary is taken from the remarks of Professor Sophie Riley, Chair of the Academy’s Teaching and Awards Committee, in announcing the award.
“Professor Charles Okidi is of course well known amongst our colleagues of the Academy as the father of environmental law in Africa. In this sense, he requires no further introduction and anything I am about to say is superfluous. However, let us reflect on some of Professor Okidi’s amazing achievements.
To start with he taught environmental law at the University of Nairobi in the 1980’s, long before the subject was taught elsewhere. Professor Okidi has supervised many graduate students and mentored students in publishing their work. He uses a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching and this is reflected in the fact that Professor Okidi’s students have gone on to work for organisations such as UNEP, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In addition many of his students have become researchers and academics at a range of universities.
Professor Okidi is also one of the founding members of the International Commission on Environmental Law as well as a founding member of the IUCN Academy on Environmental Law. In these positions Professor Okidi has forged linkages with leading academics around the world.
More recently Professor Okidi founded the Centre for Advanced Study of Environmental Law and Policy at the University of Nairobi. This centre offers graduate programmes in environmental law, policy and diplomacy. Professor Okidi was also a driving force behind the establishment of the Association of Environmental Law Teachers in African Universities.
Professor Okidi has published in the vicinity of 40 books and monographs, 28 journal articles and book chapters. He has also co-authored the first environmental law text book in Kenya.
In short, professor Okidi has been instrumental in setting the environmental agenda in Kenya and... Read More...