IMEL Hosts ELA Postgraduate Student Conference

On Friday, 12 September 2013 the Environmental Law Association (ELA) and the Institute of Marine & Environmental Law (IMEL) jointly hosted the second annual Postgraduate Student Conference under the title New frontiers: The future of environmental law. The objective of this event was to provide students with a platform for presenting and debating their research in the field of Environmental Law. Eleven students from various South African universities, including NMMU, WITS, the University of Stellenbosch, UKZN and UCT presented their research papers. The students’ performance far surpassed expectations and the ELA and IMEL congratulate all participants. Students presented papers on such varies topics as land rehabilitation duties in the context of mining; access to information related to fracking; trade law aspects related to GMOs; progress made in implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification; resilience thinking; mediation in environmental disputes; and the intersection of land restitution and protected areas. The book price for the best presentation was awarded to Kyran Wright, a MPhil student of UCT. Kyran presented on the topic of his dissertation which focuses on nuclear civil liability. The conference organisers thank the sponsors – JUTA, LexisNexis and ENS – for their support of this event. Without the sponsors this event would not have been possible.

You can download a copy of the Final Programme here.