CLA2020: Climate Litigation in Africa Johannesburg, South Africa, August 26-27, 2020

Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cla20200
Abstract registration deadline	April 21, 2020
Submission deadline	July 30, 2020

 

Amended and Extended Call for Papers

Climate Litigation in Africa - 26 and 27 August 2020

 

The call for papers for this workshop preceded the far-reaching COVID-19 induced lockdown and travel restrictions in multiple countries, including South Africa. The COVID-19 crisis has revealed how far governments and other societal actors are willing to go, to contain an emergency that immediately threatens public health. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, numerous synergies with the climate crisis are coming to the fore, raising questions as to how and whether commensurate steps might be taken towards addressing the climate emergency. 

 

The COVID-19 crisis has also prompted questions about how we engage as scholars, and the inequities built into a practice that requires international travel. It has demonstrated how productive scholarly engagement can still flourish even while physical distancing is the norm. The crisis has forced a massive and sudden reduction in international and national air travel – a situation that aligns with long-standing demands of radical climate change activists.  As climate change scholars, the decision to shift to an online event is therefore a moral imperative, rather than a temporary expedience.  We also want to reflect on the experience of hosting the workshop as an online event, and how the model we choose could leverage Global South scholars’ enhanced participation in international climate and environmental law events.

 

In light of the current situation we have taken the following decisions:

• The Workshop on Climate Litigation in Africa will go ahead as planned on 26 and 27 August 2020, but as a fully - or almost entirely - online event. We believe it is incumbent upon the climate change scholarly community to explore alternative ways of sharing scholarly ideas and capturing the richness of personal interaction that occurs when we can be in each other’s presence. We will be putting our heads together to come up with creative forms of interaction, and are open to your suggestions for how scholars can share their work and their personhood. We will facilitate participants’ online access if necessary.
• We want to open the call to contributions that reflect on the meaning of climate change litigation in Africa in light of the COVID-19 crisis. How does the current crisis expand the litigation imaginary? How can actors ride the wave of COVID-19 interventions to also address the climate crisis?
• We have extended the call for papers till 21 April 2020, with subsequent deadlines adjusted accordingly.  NB if the submission link does not work, please email the organisers directly.

 

 

Climate Litigation in Africa - 26 and 27 August 2020

Call for Papers

The University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Exeter are pleased to announce a workshop on Climate Litigation in Africa to take place at the University of the Witwatersrand on 26 and 27 August 2020.  The workshop is generously funded by the Modern Law Review.

The purpose of the workshop is to investigate the state of, potential for and meaning of climate litigation in Africa. This includes examining the potential and limitations of specific cases, questioning whether litigation is a useful strategy in this context, and where particular issues arise compared to global climate litigation trends.  To engage in innovative yet critical discussion on these themes we aim to bring together scholars from or with an interest in Africa - both working in Africa and abroad. We also welcome participation from practitioners, NGO partners and activists, and other Global South scholars in environmental law.

Background

Rapid growth in climate litigation is giving rise to increasing debate. Yet to date, the perception is that most litigious activity and scholarly and policy literature are dominated by countries in the Global North. Scholars are just beginning to examine the possible contribution of climate litigation in the Global South, and we are seeing an awakening of interest in African climate litigation. Successful climate litigation in Africa will require awareness of and sensitivity to context and particularities.

This raises a number of questions for reflection, which might include the following: how and whether western narratives about climate and energy issues ‘crowd out’ or dominate both in the academic literature and in the formulation of litigation strategy, particularly in contrast to other social priorities such as water and energy access; the technical focus on environmental impact assessment as a basis for climate litigation; the bias toward mitigation rather than adaptation; or how litigants or NGOs might introduce the Sustainable Development Goals into adjudication. The African context also has unique potential in terms of rights-based litigation, particularly in relation to adaptation litigation. There is also scope for discussion on whether transnational tort litigation is useful as a litigation strategy. There are also undoubtedly disputes and challenges which fit within broader conceptions of ‘climate litigation’ which remain underexplored, including those where the climate aspects of the litigation are inadvertent or peripheral, but nevertheless significant. Examples could include administrative challenges (perhaps challenging domestic performance against promises under the Paris Agreement), litigation or tribunal disputes concerning land rights, other conflicts in the context of extractive industries or significant energy developments, and human rights claims or actions concerning the rights of indigenous people or rural communities.

Papers will be selected based on quality as well as their capacity to engage with other submissions to provoke fruitful debate. We recognise that the discussion and context of the workshop must be driven by African scholars, and as such preference will be given to scholars or practitioners with a connection to Africa, or where one co-author has a connection to Africa.  Exceptional papers may be sought for publication in the Modern Law Review, or an edited collection compiled by the organisers.

Call for Papers

Submit an abstract (no more than 500 words) by 31 March 2020, by uploading it at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cla20200. Please include: your name, position, institutional affiliation and email address, and a short biography (50 words).  Please also indicate whether you would be willing to act as a discussant at the workshop.

Applicants will be informed of the outcome by 20 April 2020 and selected participants must submit their papers of up to 10,000 words in length by 20 July 2020. Selected participants will receive travel reimbursement for return economy airfare from either the participant’s academic institution or home country as well as accommodation for 3 nights in Johannesburg.  Please indicate in your submission whether this would be helpful for you.

Please contact the organisers with any queries:

Professor Tracy-Lynn Humby-Field, University of the Witwatersrand: tracy-lynn.humby@wits.ac.za

Dr Kim Bouwer, University of Exeter: k.bouwer@exeter.ac.uk