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In the immediate aftermath of the Rio+20 international discussions revisiting the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 and in the year also marking the 40th anniversary of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law held its tenth annual colloquium on the theme “Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads.” The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, Baltimore, Maryland, hosted the colloquium and associated workshops from July 1-5.

Panellists in the opening plenary session on the Rio + 20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development included Justice Antonio Herman Benjamin of the High Court of Brazil; Amy Fraenkel, UNEP’s Regional Director for North America, and Scott Fulton, General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Nicholas A. Robinson of Pace University and Jacob Scherr of the Natural Resources Defense Council provided further insights into the aspirations and accomplishments of the Rio meetings with particular reference to conference statements including “The Future We Want” and the Rio+20 Declaration on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability.”

Professor Edith Brown Weiss of Georgetown Law School gave the distinguished Fedder Lecture in which she highlighted “kaleidoscopic” transformation in the sources and processes of environmental law-making and governance that now include voluntary and self-regulatory initiatives alongside international, national and local government measures. In his welcoming remarks to colloquium participants, Joel Fedder underscored the importance of environmental research and advocacy.

In a special plenary session on access to justice at the University of Maryland and at a post-colloquium forum on environmental justice and information hosted in Washington by the World Bank, Academy members commemorated the exceptional career of the late Professor Svitlana Kravchenko.

The colloquium was attended by about 175 environmental law scholars drawn from universities in Africa; Europe; North America; Central and Latin America; Asia; Australia and New Zealand, as well as government officials, NGO representatives and independent experts. They discussed and debated a broad range of legal, scientific and policy issues relating to environmental governance with reference to climate change, oceans, ecosystem services, the challenges of environmental enforcement on water, energy and natural resources, among other specialized themes.

The IUCN Academy of Environmental Law represents an international network of over one hundred and fifty institutions teaching and pursuing research in environmental law. The annual conference provides an opportunity for environmental law researchers from around the world to discuss key challenges on the environmental law agenda and to deliberate on the formulation of the Academy’s programme of research and teaching. The latter, as reported at the annual general meeting by the Chair, Professor Rob Fowler, includes instructional training initiatives underway or proposed in China, India, Indonesia and Colombia.

The Academy recognized outstanding contributions to environmental law scholarship with honours going to Professors Antonio Benjamin (University of Texas School of Law), Benjamin J. Richardson (University of British Columbia) and Margaret Young (University of Melbourne).

The IUCN Academy’s 2013 conference “He Tapuwae: Footprints on the Land” will be hosted in New Zealand by the University of Waikato in collaboration with the University of New England, June 24-28.

For further information on the Academy, its programmes, and its publications, see www.iucnael.org or contact the Secretariat at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Editors of the IUCNAEL eJournal hereby invite contributions for consideration for inclusion in the 2013 edition of the eJournal. The eJournal, which is now in its fourth year of publication, can be accessed at http://www.iucnael.org/en/e-journal/about-the-journal.html.

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Svitlana Kravchenko (1949-2012)

With profound sadness, the IUCN Academy regrets to announce the untimely great loss of Professor Svitlana Kravchenko, Director of the LL.M. Program in Environmental and Natural Resources Law at the University of Oregon, U.S.A. Svitlana suffered a heart attack and passed away on Friday, February 10, in Eugene, Oregon. She is survived by her loving husband, Professor John Bonine, also a law professor at the University of Oregon; her dear daughter, Maria Kostytska (a lawyer in Paris, France) and her dear niece, Lena Kravchenko (Executive Director of Environment-People-Law in Lviv, Ukraine).

svitlana

Svitlana was born in Potsdam, Germany and grew up in both the Russian Far East and Western Ukraine. Her father was a distinguished Soviet General in Ukraine, who became a well-known military judge. Her mother was a distinguished criminal judge who became a Justice of the Supreme Criminal Court of Ukraine during the time of the Soviet Union. Svitlana graduated from the Law Faculty of Lviv State University in 1972 and began her teaching career at her alma mater. She defended her first PhD dissertation at the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow in 1977 which focused on the problem of civil liability for environmental transgressions; and defended her 2nd and higher-level dissertation in 1991 on the problems associated with environmental law enforcement in Kharkiv. Prior to teaching at the University of Oregon Law School, Svitlana taught environmental law at Lviv National University in Ukraine for 25 years.

The University of Ottawa Faculty of Law invites scholars from the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law member institutions to apply to teach an environmental law course during the faculty’s January term sessions in 2013 and 2014. We understand the busy schedules of scholars during teaching terms, we are therefore inviting applications to teach in either the January 2013 term or the January 2014 term at this time in order to assist interested scholars in planning their future teaching commitments. Courses can be on any environmental law topic and can have a comparative, regional or international focus.

The IUCN Secretariat has been located at the Faculty of Law since 2006. To further strengthen the Faculty’s link with the Academy’s member institutions, this teaching opportunity will be offered each year.

January term is a three week intensive session allowing students to immerse themselves in one subject only. Classes meet daily for three hours over the 13 day term. In addition to our own full time professors, the faculty brings in an outstanding group of lawyers, judges and visiting professors from law schools around the world. We have hosted visiting professors from Australia, France, Belgium, Iceland, England, Puerto Rico, Kenya, Mexico, India, Israel, the United States, South Africa, Burundi and Poland. January term professors attend special lectures and January term social events. They form a special community of scholars.

Remuneration is $10,000 CAN with an additional $5,000 CAN to cover receipted travel and living expenses. Visiting professors must apply for visa and work permits as required.

Applications should be sent by March 15, 2012, directly to Vice Dean Professor Craig Forcese at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, 57 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa Ontario Canada, K1N 6N5.

Applications should include an up-to-date C.V., a list of courses previously taught, a course description including teaching materials and the evaluation method, and a course outline or syllabus. Please also indicate the year that you apply to teach. We will also ask you to identify two references, with contact numbers.

The University of Ottawa Faculty of Law welcomes this as an opportunity for its students and professors to be enriched by the participation of IUCN Academy scholars.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Winnie Carruth of the IUCN Academy Secretariat at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Call for Nominations

The IUCN Academy recognizes that its member institutions are actively involved in advancing knowledge of environmental law through research on a wide range of topics from an array of perspectives. The Academy’s member law schools and their scholars frequently produce outstanding publications, organize conferences and undertake other scholarly activities of international significance. These scholarly activities directly promote the aims of the Academy.

The Academy introduced the annual scholarship prize competition to recognize outstanding publications and other scholarly achievements by individuals in its member institutions. A Scholarship Prizes Subcommittee of the Academy’s Research Committee oversees the competition.

This announcement details the criteria and procedure for nominating individuals for the scholarship prizes. The deadline for making nominations is 29 February 2012.

Collaborative venture organised by the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Research Committee, the IUCN Environmental Law Centre, and the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law

Ecosystem Services, Economic Valuation, and Environmental Equity: Complementary or Contradictory?

Workshop
June 30, 2012
Baltimore, Maryland

An increasing number of scholars and governments have begun to embrace ecosystem services as a means to protect the environment and provide financial rewards to those involved in habitat protection and restoration. The term "ecosystem services" refers to the important functions ecosystems provide, such as water filtration and purification, soil protection and creation, and food production. For most of the 20th Century, people traditionally viewed environmental protection as economically disadvantageous when compared to natural resource exploitation and other habitat uses that convert natural capital to economic goods. The recognition and economic valuation of ecosystem services may provide a means by which habitat protection and restoration can have direct economic value that exceeds other potential habitat uses. An ecosystem services framework may also provide new economic and employment opportunities for people who live in habitats that serve important functions. For these reasons, and many others, many environmental advocates have promoted the development of ecosystem services as a new model of conservation.

Despite the increased interest in ecosystem services as a new model of environmental protection, many commentators are wary about its implications for fairness and environmental governance. Some environmental advocates fear that an ecosystem services approach will promote protection only of a limited number of habitats and leave less productive (and thereby less valuable) habitats vulnerable to exploitation. For example, while wetland habitats typically provide significant ecosystem services through water filtration and purification, deserts may provide far fewer ecosystem services capable of monetization. Is this fair, and if not, should the law develop a different regime to protect the value of fragile, but less productive, habitats (e.g. based on the values/beliefs of a given population)? How does an ecosystem services model fit within current development patterns in which most people live in urban areas? Will urban dwellers benefit from an ecosystem services approach to environmental protection? Will rural dwellers?

Some scholars worry that an ecosystem services model, in which land owners are paid for habitat protection, could promote new property regimes that may threaten indigenous peoples and their traditional land uses. For instance, paying property owners for the carbon credits produced through carbon sequestration in forests and soils may promote new questions about who owns the right to the carbon in the first place. Should carbon be treated as a separate estate, similar to the mineral estate recognized in various countries? If so, who owns the carbon estate and what are the implications for indigenous property rights and uses on traditional lands?

Finally, some scholars worry that the ecosystem services approach to environmental protection will devalue the less tangible and quantifiable benefits of ecosystems. For many communities, environmental values are inseparable from cultural, religious, and spiritual beliefs. If ecosystems become valued based on the services they provide, how can the valuation account for more aesthetic benefits? What risks does an ecosystem services approach present for environmental and human rights protection?

This workshop will focus on the intersection of ecosystem services, economic valuation of environmental goods, and the equitable concerns involved in pricing environmental benefits. The presentations will consider optimal approaches for protecting ecosystem services, the benefits and potential risks of an ecosystem services approach to environmental protection, and the equitable implications of ecosystem services protection and valuation.

This workshop will involve presentations of completed, but unpublished, scholarly works. Therefore, participants in the workshop are expected to submit their completed drafts (in final or near-final form) one month before the workshop. This workshop is not a works-in-progress workshop.

Organising Committee:

  • Louisa Denier and Thomas Greiber (IUCN Environmental Law Centre)
  • Willemien du Plessis and Melissa Powers (IUCN Academy of Environmental Research Committee)
  • Antonio Benjamin and Lee Paddock (IUCN Commission on Environmental Law)
You are invited to submit an abstract of not more than 500 words focusing on

· The benefits and risks of an ecosystem services approach to environmental protection;
· How policy makers can design ecosystem services programs to achieve the greatest environmental and economic benefits; and
· The implications of ecosystem services on environmental and economic equity.

Abstracts must be submitted via email to
Louisa Denier, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Melissa Powers, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstracts are due by February 15, 2012

You will be notified whether your abstract has been accepted for the workshop by February 29, 2012.

Full papers are due no later than May 31, 2012.

10th Annual Colloquium Of The

IUCN Academy Of Environmental Law

“GLOBAL Environmental

Law At A Crossroads”

July 1-5, 2012

The year 2012 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the 20th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit. But when world leaders gather for the UN's "Rio+20" conference next June, they will face an even more challenging climate than during their previous gatherings. Despite rising public concern for the environment, efforts to advance environmental governance are facing strong headwinds in the wake of the global financial crisis and the failure to reach consensus on a post-Kyoto response to climate change.

The IUCN Academy of Environmental Law has selected the theme "Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads" for its 10th Annual Colloquium, which will be held at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law from July 1-5, 2012. The Colloquium will bring together experts from all parts of the world to consider the future of environmental law and governance from a global perspective in the aftermath of the "Rio+20" Conference. In light of the breadth of the conference theme, the Colloquium organizers welcome abstracts for papers and/or presentations on a broad array of topics. These include: approaches for improving global environmental law and governance, how to overcome political resistance to sustainable development policies, new strategies for promoting environmental justice and using law to advance sustainability, where are we after Rio+20 and where we should be going from here. Papers may focus on strategies for addressing specific environmental problems, new developments in national and regional environmental law, and the interaction of international and domestic law and policy.

Potential authors and presenters are asked to submit one-page abstracts describing the topic they propose to address and summarizing their likely conclusions. Abstracts may be submitted via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information concerning the Colloquium, please visit the University of Maryland website. The deadline for submitting abstracts is February 15, 2012.