2026 ESIL Research Forum “Sustainable
International Law Reconciling Stability and Change”, Krakow
Online Pre-Conference Workshop
https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/38544179317123?p=WOUmsuKlTeiHGdNUiT
Meeting ID: 385 441 793
171 23
Passcode: Bd2bE3LL
Tuesday 7 April 2026, from 14:00 to 17:00
CET.
What could be the Future of a Sustainable International
law? Lessons from History
The Interest Group on the History of
International Law is organizing an online workshop for early-career scholars on
the histories of sustainable international law in the context of the 2026 ESIL Research
Forum, ‘Sustainable International Law. Reconciling Stability and Change’,
set to take place on 9–10 April
2026 in Kraków and hosted by the Centre for Advanced Sustainability Studies and
the Jagiellonian University.
Theme of the workshop
The sustainability of international law
— and the international law of sustainability — are often framed as distinctly
contemporary concerns. Yet the underlying ideas are far older. Although the
vocabulary of “sustainability” is recent, earlier centuries produced comparable
reflections on how to protect nature and human communities, and how to craft an
international legal order capable of lasting across generations.
Across different contexts, jurists,
administrators, activists, and thinkers proposed solutions aimed at preserving
nature, restraining extractive practices, and stabilising international order.
Some ideas persisted; others were discarded; still others reappear today under
new names. This call has invited international lawyers and historians to
examine how earlier generations conceived of what we now call “sustainability”.
Programme
|
14:00 – 14:05 |
Introduction and words of welcome (Monica
Garcia-Salmones. ESIL IG History IL Committee) |
|
14:05 – 15:30 |
Panel 1: Imagining History and
Critique |
|
|
Xuan W Tay
(New York/ Adelaide University), ‘Narrating National History, Reimagining
International Law' |
|
|
E. Prema (Vellore
Institute of Technology), ‘The Technician and the Dead Ball: Reclaiming the
Science of International Law from the Grotian Legacy of Extraction’ Antiqua Zaki
(New Delhi University), ‘Colonial Conservation and the Unequal Foundations
of Sustainable International Law: A Comparative TWAIL Perspective’ |
|
|
Moderator: Andre
Nunes Chaib (University of Maastricht) |
|
15:30-15:45 |
Break |
|
15:45-16:45 |
Panel 2: Sustainability,
Economy and History |
|
|
Carolina
Fabara (University of Otavalo / China University of Political Science and
Law) ‘Historical Pathways to Sustainability: How International Law’s
Concepts and Debates Inform ESG Contracts and Contemporary Investment Law’ |
|
|
Anaïs Mattez (Asia Center, Harvard University) ‘Rare Earths, Borders, and the Sustainability of International Law’ |
|
|
Moderator: Monica
Garcia-Salmones |
|
16.45-16:50 |
Final remarks (Monica Garcia-Salmones) |
Conveners
Anastasia Hammerschmied – Florenz Volkaert – Sze Hong Lam
– Monica Garcia-Salmones
