24 November 2022

Call for Abstracts – EnAct Conference Human Rights and Investment Law for Climate Change: Trends and Prospects

plant on concrete

The Centre for International Law and Governance welcomes proposals for paper presentations at the international conference ‘Human Rights and Investment Law for Climate Change: Trends and Prospects’, which will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark on the 20th and 21st of March 2023.

Conference Background, Overarching Questions and Sessions

The Paris Agreement set the goal of holding temperature increase well below 2°C above preindustrial levels and a commitment to peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, evidencing the need to accelerate the green transition. However, this transition is largely imperiled by the lack of specific obligations imposed upon individual States and the lack of appropriate accountability mechanisms. This determines the need to consider legal strategies for the enforcement of climate obligations in different fields of international law.

This conference aims to explore the roles of human rights and investment law in this context, as two areas that hold significant potential. Although legal scholarship has canvassed their respective role in addressing climate change, there is a significant research gap for what concerns their interaction in advancing climate action. The conference will sketch out the current state of integration of climate change considerations into human rights and investment law respectively. After shedding light on the interaction between these areas at a general level, it will focus specifically on the evolution of normative standards to incorporate climate considerations, development in climate change litigation, and the need and prospects for reform.

The conference is organized around four thematic sessions addressing the following topics:

  1. Setting the scene: interaction between human rights, investment law, and climate change
  2. The greening of existing normative standards
  3. Litigation as a double-edged sword
  4. Prospects for reform and law-making

This conference is open to scholars, industry representatives, civil society, government representatives and others with an interest in international climate change law and governance. The conference will include papers presented by invited participants as well as authors selected through this call for abstracts. We aim to cover a diverse range of perspectives on and approaches to the conference theme, while ensuring a balanced representation of gender and levels of seniority. For that reason, we especially encourage early career researchers (ERCs) to submit proposals.

Submission of Proposals

Proposals should address specific questions related to the overall theme of the conference, specifying to which thematic session the paper relates.

All proposals should include:

  1. An abstract (max. 350-words) with a title, the author(s)’s name(s) and affiliation(s)
  2. A short biographical note / CV
  3. Contact information
  4. Please indicate what session of the conference your paper addresses

Proposals should be submitted by the 31st of January 2023 to beatriz.martinez.romera@jur.ku.dk. 

Authors will be informed of the final decision by the 10th of February 2023.

Financing 

There is no registration fee for the conference. Meals, coffee, and refreshments will be provided for participants during the conference. Presenters and discussants will also be invited to the conference dinner.

The conference is supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark through the Research Project Enhancing Climate Action through International Law (EnAct). 

Contact

Beatriz Martinez Romera (beatriz.martinez.romera@jur.ku.dk)

Associate Professor of Environmental and Climate Change Law

Centre for International Law and Governance (CILG)

Faculty of Law - University of Copenhagen

Karen Blixens Plads 16

DK-2300 Copenhagen S.            

 

Topics