Events and Announcements: 8 September 2021

Call for Papers

Ecocide as an international crime? Perspectives from domestic and international law: The International Crimes Database (ICD), hosted by the T.M.C. Asser Institute in the Hague, invites submissions of short articles for publication in the online paper series ‘ICD Briefs’ on the theme: ‘Ecocide as an international crime? Perspectives from domestic and international law’. The recent proposal by the Stop Ecocide Foundation to include ecocide as an international crime in the Rome Statute—alongside crimes against humanity, war crimes, acts of aggression, and genocide— has sparked a lively debate amongst legal scholars, practitioners and civil society. While the idea to conceive ecocide as an international crime is not a recent phenomenon, the proposal has given the discussion surrounding ecocide a renewed energy by providing a solid groundwork for how the crime can be formulated, which includes questions such as:

• How can ecocide be differentiated from ordinary environmental offences?
• Should the crime be subject to direct intent, or would negligence suffice?
• Instead of amending the Rome Statute to include a fifth international crime, is the better option to develop ecocide within the ambit of crimes against humanity?
• To what extent can legal and political developments concerning ecocide in domestic jurisdictions be extrapolated onto the international setting?
• Considering these indeterminacies, the ICD welcomes submissions that deal with the conception of the crime of ecocide from a diverse range of domestic and international legal perspectives.

If interested in submitting an ICD Brief, please send an abstract of 300 words maximum to editors@internationalcrimesdatabase.org by 1 October 2021 alongside a brief bio of a maximum of 100 words. Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by the ICD editorial team via e-mail by 15 October 2021 and will be subsequently invited to submit their full ICD Briefs by 1 January 2022.

Announcements

Conference on International Environmental Law: The University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center will be hosting its annual Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law conference on October 8, 2021. The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment produced the “Stockholm Declaration,” an environmental manifesto that forcefully declared a human right to environmental health and birthed the field of modern international environmental law. In celebration of its 50th anniversary volume, the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law is convening this event to reflect on the first 50 years of international environmental law and the lessons this history may hold for the future. The conference organized according to the three themes of Principle 1 of the Stockholm Declaration, including panels on the rights-based approach to environmental protection; anti-racism, decolonization, and environmental protection; and international environmental law’s future. It will feature a keynote address by Dinah Shelton, the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law Emeritus, George Washington University School of Law. Details and registration here.

Conference on Sustainable Development and the Law: Hamburg University, Bayreuth University and the ESIL Interest Group on Social Sciences and International Law are organizing an online conference entitled: ‘Sustainable Development and the Law: Potential and Challenges of Using Behavioural Insights”. This conference brings together leading scholars from different disciplines including law, psychology, political science, and economics to explore the potential of using behavioural insights in law – and policy – making to promote sustainable development, as well as how to overcome the challenges associated with it. The conference will take place via Zoom on 23-24 September 2021 with morning sessions from 9:50-12:30 CEST, and afternoon sessions from 15:50-18:25 CEST. You can find the program here. Registration is here.

If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact John Heieck at eventsandannouncements[at]gmail[dot]com with a one-paragraph description of your announcement along with hyperlinks to more information. Failure to provide said information may result in delayed posting of your announcement. Thank you!