Call for Papers: Early Career Researchers Panel - Joining the Dots in Climate Accountability and Risk (UC3M & EBI, Madrid)

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), together with the European Banking Institute (EBI), is hosting a joint conference titled "Joining the Dots in Climate Accountability and Risk: States, Companies, Markets" in Madrid on 30 October 2026. The conference brings together leading academics, judges, regulators, practitioners and policymakers for a forward-looking discussion.

It is organised within the framework of the project PID2024-161496OB-I00, Markets and Normative Consistency, funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and ERDF/EU.

Climate accountability and climate risks are usually approached from three perspectives: the obligations of States, the duties of companies, and the identification, disclosure and supervision of risk in financial markets. Each perspective tends to be adopted by a different scholarly and professional community, with distinct legal vocabularies and analytical methods.

These perspectives form part of an interconnected legal and economic process, and developments at one level may shape arguments, decisions and risk assessments at the others. Causation, attribution, responsibility and exposure are understood differently in the law of State responsibility, in domestic private and corporate law, and in financial risk assessment. The conference examines the points at which the three meet, and how accountability is reinforced, transformed, diluted or redirected as duties, disclosures, transition plans and climate-related exposures move between them.

The three headings below indicate where a contribution might begin. Papers are not expected to remain within one heading.

• States: the climate-related obligations of States and their legal bases; how these are clarified before international and domestic courts and tribunals; how decisions and advisory opinions of international courts are received by national legislators and courts; implications for investment protection, arbitration and the characterisation of transition-related measures; and how the responsibility of States relates to that of private actors.
• Companies: whether, and by what route, international and legislative developments are translated into duties applicable to companies; the legal basis and content of such duties; their reach along the value chain; the position of directors and the treatment of corporate groups; the status of transition plans; disclosure- and greenwashing-based claims as routes to accountability; and the effects of legislative simplification on the substance of corporate obligations.
• Markets: how climate-related exposures are identified, measured, disclosed and supervised; the treatment of litigation risk alongside physical and transition risk; the availability and quality of data on which markets and supervisors rely; the mandates of central banks and supervisory authorities; the role of ratings, benchmarks and market discipline; and the relationship between risk-based and accountability-based framings.

To foster intergenerational dialogue and showcase the work of early-career scholars, UC3M and the EBI Young Researchers Group (EBI YRG) will host an EBI YRG panel with selected speakers. The EBI YRG will also host activities to promote the exchange of ideas with the other sessions and among speakers.

The panel is designed as a supportive and intellectually rigorous space, fostering dialogue between junior and mid-career researchers and the senior academics participating in the conference, and encouraging comparative, interdisciplinary and forward-looking perspectives.

• Early career researchers, including PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers.
• Scholars who obtained their PhD within the last seven years.
• Consolidated, mid-career researchers are also eligible.
• Members of, or applicants to, the EBI Associate Researchers Group (ARG) are especially encouraged to apply.

• Submit an abstract of 350 to 500 words along with a CV.
• The submission must copy all three recipients listed under Contact below.
• The submission deadline is 20 September 2026.
• Both interdisciplinary and doctrinal scholarship on law and finance on the relevant conference topics are welcome.
• Organisers may notify acceptance earlier for contributions that show excellence and/or innovation, so early submissions are encouraged.

Selected speakers will present their work in person in Madrid as part of the UC3M-EBI conference on 30 October 2026, at the Campus Puerta de Toledo. The official page notes that registration details for the conference are to follow.