THIRD ANNUAL COLLOQUIUM ON ENVIRONMENTAL SCHOLARSHIP
AT VERMONT LAW SCHOOL

OCTOBER 12, 2012

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Vermont Law School will host the Third Annual Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship on October 12, 2012. The Colloquium offers the opportunity for environmental law scholars to present their works-in-progress and recent scholarship, to get feedback from their colleagues, and to meet and interact with those who are also teaching and researching in the environmental and natural resources law area.

If you are interested in presenting a paper at the Colloquium, please submit your contact information, a working title and short abstract using our online form by April 30. For an abstract to be eligible for submission, the author must anticipate that the paper will still be at a revisable stage (neither published nor so close to publication that significant changes are not feasible) by the date of the Colloquium. We will do our best to include all interested presenters, and will notify authors about acceptances no later than May 2012.

All selected participants will be required to submit a paper draft no later than October 1, 2012, and all participants will be asked to provide commentary on another participant’s paper draft at the Colloquium. Final papers will also be eligible for publication in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law.

The Colloquium will take place on Friday, October 12, and Vermont Law School’s Environmental Law Center and its faculty will host a cocktail reception on Thursday evening, and dinner on Friday evening. Further Colloquium details regarding schedule, events, lodging, and transportation will be forthcoming and available at www.vermontlaw.edu/ces2012.

Submit your abstract here.

Never did I imagine that I’d be so busy on my sabbatical. I only find time to write this since it is Spring Break for my kids and so we’re backpacking Europe via overnight train, making a triangle from Southern Sweden/Copenhagen to Amsterdam to Prague and back. (Though we only made the train in time because our daughter’s principal drove us to pick up our older daughter from a field trip we didn’t know she had and then to the train station.) I hope it turns out to be a good train trip, and I’m especially excited about going to the Czech Republic and Eastern Europe for the first time.

Why have I been so busy? Well, I’ve started to learn Swedish through municipally run free courses for non-native speakers, and my morning class contains people from all over the world with different levels of education. In addition to Swedish, I’m re-learning Chinese as well with two native Chinese speakers in the class. But my Spanish skills have really come back since one of my fellow students only speaks Spanish, so anything she doesn’t understand in Swedish of English, I have to translate for her. If anything, I wish I had the time to really become fluent in the three non-native languages in which I dabble—Chinese, Spanish and Swedish. My class is a fascinating mix of people, who are all kind and friendly. Though many have significant amounts of education, I am clearly (and unfairly) in a better position since I have a job, I (unlike them) can return to the U.S. anytime, my American degree holds more clout, and I am assumed to be more competent due to my whiteness and English-speaking skills. Yet, it’s comforting to know that only after three days, folks from the U.S., England, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Russia, and China can all get along though well. Though, in all honestly, it’s hard and saddening to meet people who had to leave their war torn homes as a result of American military action. And, after now living in China and Sweden, its remarkable how my worldview has changed over the past three years.

More about why I’m so busy…I’ve been finishing up my second book (about food policy and the environment) and starting my third (about the future of environmentalism in a globalized world), working on two China articles and developing my Sweden academic ties, including doing two comparative environmental law projects with Swedish academics. The last item is especially easy to do, since I love trains and unlike the U.S., here it’s just so easy to hope on the train and go see a colleague 2-3 hours away. There’s a real interest in Sweden in building institutional relationships and doing comparative
environmental law work between the EU, the U.S. and China. Thus, I’m building very going relationships with Uppsala University, Linnaeus University, Kristianstad University, and a few others.

Finally, my new electric guitar begs to be played more often, and my partner and I had our first date since mid-December (the movie “Hunger Games” was better than expected, and, in what we’ve come to expect in Sweden, dinner was overpriced and too salty but the wine, bread and butter were excellent).

http://chinaenvironmentalgovernance.com/2012/03/29/law-student-meets-china-for-the-first-time/

Vermont Law School 2L, Allison Cameron, on the JRP, Hyrdopower in China, and Research Bias

http://www.economist.com/node/21551090

See here.

Part of the oath:

“I swear to faithfully fulfill the sacred mission of legal workers in socialism with Chinese characteristics. I swear my loyalty to the motherland, to the people, to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system, and to protect the dignity of the Constitution and laws.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17470818

China offers a new beginning, at least for Stephon Marbury.

http://www.cnnsi.com/2012/writers/bryan_armen_graham/03/21/stephon-marbury-china/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t14_a0

http://vtdigger.org/2012/03/20/bill-would-mandate-home-efficiency-disclosure/

Lawmakers ask FDA to mandate labels on genetically modified food

Jeremy P. Jacobs, E&E reporter

Published: Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Fifty-five lawmakers yesterday called on the Food and Drug Administration to require food makers to label their product if it contains genetically engineered ingredients.

In a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, the lawmakers — 54 Democrats and one Republican — said the current labeling protocols are "inadequate" for so-called GE, or genetically modified, products.

"We urge you to fully review the facts, law, and science, and side with the American public by requiring the labeling of genetically engineered foods as is done in nearly 50 countries throughout the world," the lawmakers, led by Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), wrote in a letter. "FDA has a clear opportunity to protect a consumer’s right to know, the freedom to choose what we feed our families, and the integrity of our free and open markets with this petition."

Specifically, they are asking the FDA to adopt a legal petition submitted by more than 500 public health organizations and companies such as Stonyfield Farm that calls for a labeling requirement.

The JustLabelIt.org campaign submitted the proposal in October, and the public comment period expires at the end of the month. So far, more than 900,000 comments in support of the measure have been submitted, according to a campaign spokeswoman. The campaign’s goal is 1 million by the deadline.

Polling has shown that Americans, the lawmakers wrote, are surprised that GE foods are not identified on labels and want the government to identify these products.

They also said that labeling doesn’t imply there is anything wrong with the food.

"The FDA requires the labeling of over 3,000 ingredients, additives, and processes; providing basic information doesn’t confuse the public, it empowers them to make choices," they wrote. "Absent labeling, Americans are unable to choose for themselves whether to purchase GE foods."

There are also GE labeling efforts under way in Boxer’s home state of California. Activists are collecting signatures to put a initiative that would require GE labeling on the November ballot (Greenwire, Feb. 16).

The members also said the labeling measure is particularly important as FDA continues its long review of whether to approve a genetically modified Atlantic salmon. If approved, it would be the first biotech animal on U.S supermarket shelves (E&E Daily, Dec. 16, 2011).

Click here to read the letter.