Call for Papers: Workshop on ‘International Law and the Blue Economy’, Institute for International Law and the Humanities (IILAH), Melbourne Law School, 7-8 May 2026
Deadline 25 November 2025
This workshop aims to investigate the role of international law in the ‘Blue Economy’. Scientists are sounding the alarm on threats to the ocean from combined pressures of climate change, overfishing, pollution, and conflicting uses. Policy-makers are claiming that economic growth can be delivered compatibly with environmental sustainability and human welfare. In these conditions, can international law support ocean health and wellbeing? On the one hand, international law can safeguard ecosystems, communities and societies that sustain the ocean. On the other hand, it constructs relations of property and production that can cause harm. It is also important to understand links between ocean-specific areas of law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and other treaties and customary international law. It is also important to understand links between ocean-specific areas of law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and other areas, such as the customary duty to prevent significant harm to the environment (as recently articulated by the International Court of Justice).
This two-day event, supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, will generate critical and creative ideas about states’ obligations and rights in exclusive economic zones, in supply chains, in production and consumption activities, and in the global commons. When?
7-8 May 2026, with applications closing 25 November 2025.
Who?
Australian and international legal scholars and practitioners including senior academics, early career researchers, government officials and staff of international organisations.
Where?
The Institute for International Law and the Humanities (IILAH), Melbourne Law School.
How?
Send your application to the workshop convenor, Professor Margaret Young, University of Melbourne, including: paper title, abstract (200-300 words), and a one-page CV.
For more details, refer here
