on the 50th Anniversary of the Stockholm Conference
Environment, Climate Change and Constitutionalism
20 - 21 October 2022
Venue: Union of Turkish Bars Associations, Lawyer Özdemir Özok Congress and Culture Center
Adress: Oğuzlar Mahallesi, Av. Özdemir Özok Sokak, No:8, 06520 Balgat - Ankara
Jointly organized by
The International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL), Union of Turkish Bar Associations, Municipality of Çankaya, The Association of Research on Constitutional Law (Anayasa-Der) & The International Center for Comparative Environmental Law (CIDCE).
Background
Climate change has become a global crisis today which affects almost everything, including the law. Indeed, climate change and other environmental issues have raised the question to what extent the existing legal instruments and measures are necessary and effective in facing and combating this problem. Since human existence cannot be considered separate from nature, the environment is part of the ‘right to life’. The protection of the right to life in dignity is only possible in an ecologically balanced nature based on biological diversity. One of the most important problems today is the loss of biodiversity due to the destruction of the environment.
The destruction of the environment both nationally and transnationally, and the climate crisis resulting from this distruction negatively affects the most socio-economic disadvantaged groups of the country and poorer countries globally. In other words, climate crisis and other environmental challanges create equality and justice problems both domesticaly and worldwide. Those least responsible for climate change face effects of the climate crisis the most. Environmental issues and domestic and global climate crisis are also closely related to the sustainable development. The state’s economic growth and development policies have a great part in the emergence and deepening of the environmental crisis.
While celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Stockholm Conference that represents the first international attempt to address the challenge of preserving and enhancing the human environment, it will be discussed in this conference national and global effects of the environmental crisis that produces a burning effect on the rights and freedoms, equality, justice, and democracy from the constitutional law perspective.
As climate change continues to create and deepen numerous problems related to economic, social, cultural, technological and environmental interests around the world, it is of great importance to examine and discuss the place and importance of this issue in the field of constitutional law.
Indeed, the relationship between constitutions, constitutionalism and environmental challanges attracts attention and raises considerable questions, such as the role of the constitution and environmental constitutionalism on the protection and improvement of nature and the eco-system, the place of the rule of law and the welfare state in overcoming adverse consequences of the climate crisis, impact of the environmental issues on democracy.
The aim of the Roundtable is to create a useful and vibrant forum for constitutional scholars to gather and exchange ideas on this issue.
Day 1 (20 October 2022)
Opening Speeches (10.00-10.30)
Keynote Speech (10.30-11.00)
Panel 1: Constitutional Democracy and Environmental Rights (11.00-12.30)
Panel 2: Environmental Justice: Constitutional and Environmental Adjudication (13.30-15.15)
Panel 3: Climate Change, Constitution and Freedoms (15.45-17.30)
Day 2 (21 October 2022)
Panel 4: Rule of Law, Welfare State and Environmental State (10.00-11.15)
Panel 5: Climate Change and Sustainable Development (11.45-13.15)
Special Panel for Young Scholars: The Rights of the Future Generations and Global Constitutionalism (14.15-16.15)
Closing of the Roundtable (16.30-17.30)
PROGRAM
20 October 2022
10.00-10.30-Opening Speeches
- Adrienne Stone (President of the IACL)
- Erinç Sağkan (President of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations)
- Alper Taşdelen (Mayor of Çankaya)
10.30-11.00-Keynote Speech:
- İbrahim Kaboğlu (President of the Association of Research on Constitutional Law and member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey)
Vers le troisième pilier du droit constitutionnel: le droit constitutionnel environnemental (après le droit constitutionnel des institutions et le droitconstitutionnel des libertés): la réalité et l’utopie?
11.00-12.30- Panel 1: Constitutional Democracy and Environmental Rights
Chairs:
- Bertil Emrah Oder (Koç University, Turkey)
- Didem Yılmaz (Bahçeşehir University, Turkey
- James May (Delaware Law School, USA)
The evolution and implementation of a right to a healthy environment - Daniel Bonilla Maldonado (University of los Andes, Colombia)
Rights of nature: Their conceptual architecture - Michel Prieur (University of Limoges, Scientific Director of the CRIDEAU, and President of the CIDCE)
Les droits des défenseurs de l’environnement
12.30-13.30 Lunch
13.30-15.15- Panel 2: Environmental Justice: Constitutional and Environmental Adjudication
Chairs:
- Helle Krunke (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
- Ali Ulusoy (University of Ankara, Turkey)
- Merris Amos (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
Climate litigation in the European Court of Human Rights: Possibilities and problems - Véronique Boillet (University of Lausanne) and Clémence Demay (University of Lausanne)
The imminence of danger in climate issues: Two Swiss cases facing the case law of the ECtHR - Wei Cao (Renmin University of China, China)
Judicial activism of Chinese courts in the context of climate change - Badrinath Rao (Kettering University, USA)
Constitutional approaches to climate justice: Lessons from India’s constitutional jurisprudence
15.15-15.45- Coffee Break
15.45-17.30- Panel 3: Climate Change, Constitution and Freedoms
Chairs:
- Jose Maria Serna (National Autonomous Univesity of Mexico,
Mexico) - Anna Jonsson Cornell (Uppsala University, Sweden)
- Lynda Collins (University of Ottawa, Canada)
Climate change and the ecologically liiterate constitution - Tania Groppi (University of Sienna, Italy)
Does the constitution matter? On environment, constitutional amendments and courts - Nabeela Siddiqui (CHRIST (Deemed to be University), India)
Swinging between environment vs religion: A tale of river Ganges in India - Serkan Köybaşı (Bahçeşehir University, Turkey)
Rethinking rights and freedoms to tackle climate change
21 October 2022
10.00-11.15- Panel 4: Rule of Law, Welfare State and Environmental State
Chairs:
- Adrienne Stone (President of the IACL, University of Melbourne, Australia)
- Michel Prieur (President of the CIDCE, University of Limoges, France)
- Marek Zubik (University of Warsaw, Poland)
Obligation of taking care of the environment in the Polish Constitution - Xavier Groussot (Lund University, Sweden) and Sanja Bogojevic (Oxford University, UK)
Rule of law and emergency in times of climate change: A european perspective - Gloria Marchetti (University of Milan, Italy)
The changes in the environmental protection in Italy: The impact on economic and social rights
11.15-11.45- Coffee Break
11.45-13.15- Panel 5: Climate Change and Sustainable Development
Chairs:
- Kasım Akbaş (Union of Turkish Bar Associations)
- Pablo Riberi (National University of Cordoba, Argentina)
- Ngozi Finette Unuigbe (University of Benin, Nigeria)
The impact of climate change on sustainable development: Thinking with indigenous people - Christina Akrivopoulou (Hellenic Open University, Greece), Ioanna Pervou (Hellenic Open University, Greece) and Stella Christoforidou (Hellenic Open University, Greece)
Between nomads and citizens. Climate change, migration and the elements of state - Sharon Pia Hickey (International IDEA)
Constitutional design for sustainable development: Recent institutional innovations - Pasquale Policastro (Szczecin University, Poland)
Transnational citizenship, education and public services: 15 years of experience whin the great green wall of Sahel in confronting desertification and climate change in Africa: A constitutional analysis and proposals on constitutional policy
13.15-14.15: Lunch
14.15-16.15- Special Panel for Young Scholars: The Rights of the Future Generations and Global Constitutionalism
Chairs:
- Selin Esen (University of Ankara, Turkey)
- Susanna Mancini (University of Bologna, Italy
- Çiğdem Serra Uzunpınar (Ankara University, Turkey)
Cultural heritage protection and climate change: The lack of a human rights-based approach - Francesco Gallarati (University of Genoa, Italy)
The future rights of present generations: A paradigm shift in environmental constitutionalism? - Willy Mounom Mbong (University of Dschang, Cameroon)
Le droit constitutionnel et la protection des générations futures en Afrique noire francophone - Andrea De Petris (Università degli Studi Internazionali, Italy)
Future generations as subjects of rights and freedoms: For a new constitutional dogmatic - Agnes Lux (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary)
How does link the constitutional rights of future generations to children’s rights in the Hungarian Ombudsman’s perspective as a tool of constitutional legal defense? - Kardelen Altun (Ankara University)
Role of the constitutional adjudication on ecological intergenerational justice - Julian Boer (Utrecht University) Constitutional limits to the recognition of the interests of future generations by the courts
16.15-16.30- Coffee Break
16.30-17.30- Closing of the Roundtable