Call for papers: Joint Cross-border Sustainability Conference

Environmental sustainability issues are at the top of the U.S. and Canadian policy agendas. Vermont Law School, which has the pre-eminent environmental law faculty in the United States, and McGill's Faculty of Law, which has long been Canada's leading institution in the areas of comparative international law and sustainability, announce an interdisciplinary and comparative workshop on the challenges posed by sub-national, national, and international attempts to achieve environmental sustainability objectives in the face of growing climate change concerns.

The conference will take place 10-12 June 2011 at McGill.

The conference theme is intentionally open-ended, as the primary objectives of the workshop are (1) to facilitate interactions among scholars working in a range of disciplines and on variety of topics related to sustainability issues, (2) to provide a forum for scholars to present works in progress and (3) to build institutional ties among the participating institutions.

Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):

• Sustainability and land use regulation issues, including market and regulatory approaches;
• Sustainability and trans-border issues, including regulation of transnational water bodies such as the Lake Champlain Basin, the Gulf of Maine, and the Arctic Ocean;
• Sustainability and international law issues, including the effectiveness of international environmental regulation and enforcement;
• Sustainability and human rights, including comparative constitutional analyses of sustainability-related rights, such as the right to scarce natural resources.

This call for papers is being sent to scholars and others in law, environmental studies, urban and regional planning, sustainability, and other relevant disciplines. Colleagues are invited to present on any issues related to environmental sustainability and to pass the call on to others who may be interested.

Please submit a working title and short abstract to Professors Hoi Kong (hoi.kong [at] mcgill.ca) and Kinvin Wroth (kwroth [at] vermontlaw.edu) by January 15, 2011.

Final selections will be made by February 1, 2011.  We will do our best to include all interested presenters.

Papers completed for publication will be published in 2011-2012 in an appropriate journal to be determined. Details of schedule, events, and presentations will be forthcoming and will be available on www.vermontlaw.edu and www.mcgill.ca/law.

This conference is made possible in part by a generous grant to Vermont Law School from the Canadian Government's 2010-2011 Canadian Studies Conference Grant Program.