Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

10TH ANNUAL COLLOQUIUM OF THE IUCN ACADEMY OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

JULY 1-5, 2012

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Baltimore, Maryland

The IUCN Academy of Environmental Law’s 10th Annual Colloquium: “Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads” was held at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law from July 1-5, 2012. The Colloquium brought together experts from all parts of the world to consider the future of environmental law and governance in the aftermath of the “Rio+20” Conference. The colloquium was organized around seven breakout sessions addressing: Environmental Governance, Theoretical Foundations of Environmental Law, Biodiversity and Land Use, Environmental Enforcement, Sustainable Development, Climate Change, and Multidisciplinary Approaches to Environmental Law. Each of these subjects had numerous panel presentations from a variety of perspectives and experiences. In addition, the opening plenary included reports from Rio+20 from a distinguished panel of speakers: Brazilian Justice Antonio Benjamin, EPA General Counsel Scott Fulton, UNEP Regional Director Amy Fraenkel, Jacob Scherr (a Maryland alum) from the NRDC, and Pace Professor Nick Robinson. The keynote address was delivered by Georgetown Professor Edith Brown Weiss.

More than 150 presentations addressing environmental law were given by scholars from around the world. Included in these presentations were pre-Colloquium workshops on valuing ecosystem services and global environmental law clinics – both the political challenges in creating environmental law clinics and the promise of integrating those clinics into a global network.