Call for abstracts: SMU-Sydney-HKU Law & Sustainability Conference

Law, Sustainability, and Development: Transforming Pathways in the Asia Pacific Region

Submission deadline: 1 May 2024

Sydney Law School is pleased to announce the SMU-Sydney-HKU Law & Sustainability Conference be held at the University of Sydney on 11-12 July 2024. We are delighted to invite you to submit an abstract for the conference, which will be held as an in person event but with an online presentation option.

The Asia Pacific region is at a critical point in its pathway to sustainability and faces significant challenges. These include achieving net zero emissions by mid-century, transitioning to cleaner energy in a manner that is just, progressing toward a ‘circular economy’, ensuring that supply chains remain resilient, and safeguarding human rights.

A significant part of the global supply chain is located in the region, which is growing and urbanising rapidly. Improving access to employment and promoting economic growth, as well as accelerating progress towards responsible consumption and production, are important priorities. Meanwhile climate change and biodiversity loss pose major threats. Addressing these concerns will require rethinking development pathways, and embracing transformative change.

The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a framework for addressing economic, social, and environmental sustainability challenges. These goals include eliminating hunger and extreme poverty, reducing diseases, reducing inequality, improving water management and energy, and tackling climate change urgently. Progress on all 17 goals is ‘alarmingly slow’, however, according to the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP, 2024). Without significant progress, the SDGs will not be achieved until 2062: some 32 years behind schedule.

We invite papers that critically examine connections between law, sustainability, and development in the Asia Pacific region, including those that explore what shifting development pathways will require of law and governance. We also welcome interdisciplinary perspectives.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

•   Overcoming complexity and coordination challenges in sustainability governance
•   Strategic targeting of leverage points to accelerate action on climate change and sustainability
•   ’Social tipping’ interventions, such as divestment and disclosure initiatives
•   Circular economy initiatives and their legal implications
•   Digitalisation and its role in promoting sustainability
•   Approaches to framework legislation
•   Interdependence between human and non-human systems and its implications for law and governance
•   Incorporating intergenerational time horizons
•   Achieving sustainable transformation across and/or between systems
•   Building societal support for accelerated transitions to sustainability
•   Addressing equity and justice issues, including concepts of just transition
•   Innovative financing mechanisms and new forms of financial cooperation
•   Market-based approaches to sustainability
•   New partnerships between private and public actors for advancing sustainability goals
•   Responsible innovation and its legal implications for sustainable development
•   Building ‘green economies’ and promoting sustainable business practices.

We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions that shed light on these pressing issues and contribute to advancing knowledge, teaching and learning, and practice in the field of law and sustainability.

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Guidelines for abstract submission

Please follow our guidelines below to submit your abstract (max 250 words) via the online portal correctly.

Submissions should be original and unpublished work. Selected papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of a leading journal.

The deadline for submissions is 11.59 AEDT on 1 May 2024.

Abstracts will be considered on a rolling basis and all participants will be notified of acceptance by 6 May 2024.  

Submit your abstract here.
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This event is proudly presented by the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law, Centre for Asian and Pacific Law and the Ross Parsons Centre at Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney.