We now live in a very different world than we did when this blog was updated in April 2019. A global pandemic has infected more than 20.1 million people, killing nearly three-quarters of a million them worldwide. People have proven to be amazingly adaptable in the face of this profound tragedy. The last environmental conference I attended in person was the AELERT-INECE Conference in Adelaide, Australia in March 2020. Since returning from that conference I have rarely ventured from home and all of our classes have been online. Last month I co-taught an online course on Comparative US-China Environmental Law with Professor Yanmei Lin for Vermont Law School. We were fortunate to be able to beam in guest lectures from Chinese scholars and environmentalists who were willing to speak to the class even though it was 11pm in China.
Last Friday the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law held an online annual meeting with participants from all over the world. In 2019 the Academy had held its 17th annual Colloquium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Colloquium was hosted by the University Teknologi MARA. It was a highly successful and well-attended event where two Maryland law students participated in the Tony Oposa Environmental Moot Court and made presentations, as I did. The Academy had hoped to host its 18th annual Colloquium last month at the University of Gronigen in the Netherlands, but this in-person meeting has been postponed until July 2021. At the online meeting last Friday it was reported that the Academy now has 7 new institutional members, bringing the total number to 209 institutions in 60 countries.
