Theorising the New Age of Environmental Human Rights Law Conference

Lancaster University Law School, together with the Society of Legal Scholars, invites abstracts for the conference Theorising the New Age of Environmental Human Rights Law, to be held at Lancaster Castle on 17-18 September 2026.

The 2020s are becoming a pivotal decade for international environmental human rights law. Almost every major international human rights body has recently pronounced on the relationship between human rights and climate change. At the same time, there has been rapid growth in theorising about the philosophical foundations of environmental human rights, which has informed the arguments of practitioners, shaped climate change advisory opinions, and been cited in judicial opinions. This conference examines how recent developments in legal practice should be understood at the level of theory.

• To support the publication of high-quality research outputs through critical discussion and informed peer review.
• To nurture interdisciplinary links across law, philosophy, and political science.
• To build a research network to advance theorising about environmental human rights.
• To foster the learning and development of postgraduate researchers (PGRs) in this field.

Abstracts should touch on one or more of the following four themes, broadly construed:

• The philosophical foundations of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
• Contested right-holders: future generations, peoples, and the 'more-than-human'.
• Theorising the rights-turn in climate change litigation.
• The courts and democracy: legitimacy, institutional competence, and the separation of powers.

The main conference welcomes submissions from legal scholars, philosophers, political theorists, and social scientists more generally. A dedicated PGR Roundtable on the final afternoon is open to postgraduate researchers working on the environment, human rights, and climate justice, broadly construed.

Submit an abstract of up to 200 words via the relevant Microsoft Forms link on the official Call for Papers page. PGR Roundtable participants additionally submit a discussion paper of up to 1,500 words by 21 August 2026.

No submission or registration fee is mentioned in the call for papers.

Visit the official Call for Papers page and submit your abstract via the Microsoft Forms link (main conference and PGR Roundtable have separate forms). For queries on the main conference contact j.letwin@lancaster.ac.uk; for the PGR Roundtable contact k.neaves@lancaster.ac.uk or c.cornejomartinez@lancaster.ac.uk.