CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Conference "Asian and African Perspectives on Law and Sea-level Rise” (Lisbon, 3 October)

Are you interested in presenting at the conference "Asian and African Perspectives on Law and Sea-Level Rise"?

Co-organised by WTI's research fellow, Dr. Aylin Yildiz Noorda, the conference will take on October 3, 2024, at the University of Lisbon.

The organisers invite researchers at any career stage to present their work on the intersection of law and sea-level rise (SLR) with a focus on Asian and/or African countries, in a hybrid conference organised by the Lisbon Public Law Research Centre.

Abstracts should be no more than 500 words (.doc/.pdf) and sent to environmental-law@lisbonpubliclaw.pt with the heading ‘2024 SLR Conference Lisbon’, until May 15th. Please include your full name, title, university, contact information, and whether you will participate in person or virtually and would like to request reimbursement for your travel, accommodation or visa expenses. Please note that reimbursement of expenses is not guaranteed.

Potential subthemes:

• Human mobility, including migration, displacement, planned relocation, evacuations
• Human rights, including rights-based climate litigation and climate protests
• Rights of nature, including environmental and biodiversity law
• Climate law, including adaptation and disaster risk reduction, climate finance, ITMOs, and bilateral climate agreements
• Trade, investment, and finance, including WTO and dispute settlement, ISDS mechanism, and GFANZ
• Corporate responsibility, including UNGPs, OECD Guidelines and NCP cases, and ESG law and litigation
• Statehood and the law of the sea issues, including loss and damage

Particularly interesting is legal research that examines 

(1) legal statecraft (e.g. How are Asian and/or African States contributing to international processes on SLR to shape the norms to better fit their interests and concerns about SLR?); 

(2) regional and subregional outlooks (e.g. To what extent do regional and sub-regional organisations contribute to addressing SLR in the contexts of Asia and/or Africa? How do regional and sub-regional legal instruments, such as trade agreements, investment treaties, climate agreements and free movement agreements, factor into the response?); and

(3) domestic innovations (e.g. What types of governmental and corporate policies and practices are being developed to address the adverse impacts of SLR at the domestic level? What lessons can we draw from emerging legislative and regulatory frameworks?).

Successful applicants will be expected to submit the first version of their research papers by September 15, 2024, with the edited version due by December 1, 2024. Following a peer review process, approved papers will be published in 2025 as a Special Issue of an international, open-access scientific journal.