Call for Papers: Rethinking Sustainable Development in Terms of Justice

A call for papers has been issued for the first Tarragona International Environmental Law Colloquium. The theme is "Rethinking Sustainable Development in Terms of Justice." Here's the call:

Sustainable development is a normative concept that was conceived of as a paradigm for reconciling competing and conflicting interests in economic development, social justice and environmental protection. In legal terms, sustainable development has been portrayed in manifold ways. Some view it as a normative matrix for re-interpreting existing legal principles and rules and fostering the emergence of new ones, or as a meta-legal principle that exerts interstitial normativity. Others describe it as a decision-making framework for maintaining and achieving human well-being. Yet, the perception seems to spread in academia and civil society that, as a normative concept, sustainable development may already have seen its best days. Instead, renewed claims for the reparation of historical wrongs and the promotion of procedural fairness and distributive justice in international environmental law are increasingly gaining salience. Is sustainable development still a suitable concept to address these claims? What normative and/or institutional changes are required in different areas of international environmental law and governance to tackle these demands and promote social fairness and environmental sustainability?

The organizing committee welcomes paper and poster proposals that address the overall theme of the colloquium. In so doing, paper and poster proposals may focus on any of the following topics in this non-exhaustive list:

• Climate change and law
• Environmental liability
• Energy law
• Indigenous people and the environment
• Ecological debt
• Economy and the environment
• Human rights and the environment
• Natural resources protection
• Environmental justice, ethics and global governance
• Gender and the environment

Those interested in presenting should submit an abstract of no more than 400 words by 31st January 2016 7th February 2016, indicating whether it is intended for oral or poster presentation. The official language of the TIEC is English. All abstracts and posters must be presented in English. The authors of abstracts selected for oral presentation will not be expected to submit completed papers. However, we do encourage interested authors to submit completed papers which will be considered for publication in the Catalan Environmental Law Journal (Revista Catalana de Dret Ambiental).