Law and the Environment 2017: Environmental Principles – Between Flexibility and Opacity in Environmental Law

Thursday, April 27^th 8.30am-6.30pm

Boole 1, 3 & 4, UCC Main Campus

The School of Law is delighted to announce that the 15th Annual Law and the Environment Conference, a unique event in the Irish environmental calendar, will take place on Thursday April 27th 2017 at University College Cork.

The conference provides a forum for the expert presentation of legal developments and research results in the area of Environmental Law, Regulation and Policy, as well as an informal forum for the exchange of views among policy-makers and regulators, regulated operators, the environmental NGO community, and Irish (and overseas) academic researchers and professionals.

The emergence of a universally accepted set of environmental principles, which reflect the broad policy objectives of environmental protection and sustainable development, has the potential to unify application of the diverse rules of environmental law, which derive from a disparate range of legal sources found at the national, supranational / EU and international levels. Environmental principles can, for example, provide shared conceptual understandings to bridge the gaps traditionally existing between the international, EU and national environmental law frameworks. However, uncertainty persists as to the precise normative role and legal significance of environmental principles in relation to the interpretation of environmental rules, the definition of their scope of application, and review of the validity of environmental regulatory decisions made thereunder.

This year’s event boasts an expanded programme of speakers, comprising over 30 individual presentations arranged into a range of specialist sessions covering all aspects of Principles of Environmental Law,

Speakers will present in a range of specialist sessions, including:

• Legal Responses to Climate Change;
• Energy Law and Policy;
• Marine Environmental Law;
• Aquaculture and Fisheries Law;
• Contemporary Developments in Planning Law;
• Corporate Law and the Environment.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Dr Brendan Flynn, School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland Galway
• Dr Mary Dobbs, School of Law, Queens University Belfast
• Prof Geert van Calster, Faculty of Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• Prof Ronan Long, World Maritime University, Malmö, Sweden
• Mr Edmund Sweetman BL, Law Library, Dublin
• Mr Michael Kingston, Lloyd’s List Global Maritime Lawyer of the Year; Representative of the International Union on Marine Insurance at the IMO on Polar Matters
• Dr Blanca Mamutse, School of Law, Aston University
• Dr Jingjing Zhao, School of Law, University of Strathclyde
• Prof Berna Grist, School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin.

Full programme is downloadable here.