Stanford Journal of International Law
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STANFORD JOURNAL OF
INTERNATIONAL LAW
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559 NATHAN ABBOTT WAY, STANFORD, CA 94305-8160 • PHONE: +1.650.723.1375 • FAX: +1.650.723.0202
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ISSN 0731-5082
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Call
for Papers: Spring 2007 Symposium - Climate Change Liability and the Allocation
of Risk
The Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the Stanford
Journal of International Law will host a one-day symposium on February 24, 2007 on legal
responses to global climate change. The symposium will bring
together individuals who have experience with innovative approaches to climate
change liability and provide them a forum to present and deliberate new legal
strategies and, most importantly, produce creative scholarship that can be
applied in future litigation as well as other legal arenas. The focus
will not be on rehashing past accomplishments but on building the groundwork
for new achievements. The final output of the symposium will be a special issue
published jointly by the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the Stanford
Journal of International Law and distributed to their subscribers, as well
as symposium participants and attendees. We expect this compilation to serve as
a valuable new resource for scholars and practitioners alike.
Characterizing the Problem:
Although the negative implications of human-driven climate change are
increasingly well understood by the scientific community, the legal discussion
to date has focused largely on the allocation of responsibility for mitigating
and avoiding changes to the global environment. In this symposium we
will explore legal responses to climate changes that have already occurred, are
unavoidable as a result of past actions, or are likely based upon projected
future trends and behaviors. Specifically, the symposium will coordinate
perspectives from academics and practitioners on issues pertaining to the
allocation of liability for greenhouse gas emissions. This discussion will focus
on three principal areas of current debate in both domestic and international
legal contexts: 1) tort and other common law liability; 2) risk allocation
through insurance and reinsurance; and 3) protections from the negative
consequences of climate change afforded indigenous groups by international
human rights regimes.
Tort and the Common Law
First, we will address the potential for successful tort and other common law
actions against greenhouse gas emitters, and the barriers to the successful
prosecution of such actions in courts of law. We will also explore the
potential influence of tort claimants on the political and regulatory
landscape. For instance, legal scholars, practitioners, and advocates
have drawn parallels between claims based on human-caused climate change and
successful litigation involving DES, lead pigment, tobacco, and asbestos.
The symposium will explore the validity of these parallels, and will consider
the applicability of theories of probabilistic harm and collective liability,
and the relative efficacy of a piecemeal approach versus global approaches to
the establishment of liability.
Insurance, Reinsurance, and Global Business Law
Second, we will explore the ramifications of climate change on the allocation
of risk through the insurance and reinsurance industries. Medicine, real
estate, transportation safety, and drug testing are just a few of the
industries whose contours have been shaped via policies implemented through
insurance schemes. Climate change science is being followed closely by the
reinsurance industry, and modeling the impacts of changing climate is now a new
research priority among several of the world’s largest reinsurance firms.
As businesses face new risks as a result of climate change, the allocation of
costs associated with these risks will require modified legal and business
relationships between insurers and their corporate clients. The symposium
will explore the future of these relationships.
Human Rights and the International System
Third, we will consider the legal and political ramifications of human rights
claims brought by indigenous groups that have been, or expect to be, adversely
affected by human-caused climate change. We will discuss the tenability
of these claims and impediments to their success, as well as their potential
influence on international relations, transnational legal regimes, and
international civil proceedings.
We welcome case studies, legal and/or policy analyses, empirical studies, and
theoretical contributions. Participation from scholars and practitioners is
encouraged. Please direct papers (in standard legal format and in the
40-80 page range if possible, although shorter papers and essays will be
considered) and requests for further information to symposium@sjil.org. The symposium
will be held at Stanford Law School, Stanford, California, on February 24, 2007.
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© Copyright 2005 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
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