Fifty Years of International Environmental Law

The 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment – the 1972 Stockholm Conference – has been more influential for the development of international environmental law than any other single event. So, how has international law developed since then regarding air and water pollution, climate change, nature and biodiversity, waste and chemicals, and human rights, participatory rights and the rule of law in environmental contexts? Where is international environmental law today – a few years after the 2022 UN Stockholm+50 International Meeting? And where is it going?

The recently published book Fifty Years of International Law: Developments since the 1972 Stockholm Conference (CUP, 2026) answers some of these questions. At the seminar, these findings will be presented, examined and discussed. It will also highlight the changed idea of the environment as such at the time of the Stockholm Conference and thereafter, and reflect on the impact of the 1972 and 2022 Stockholm events for the future, towards Stockholm+100.

Programme

Presentation

• Fifty Years of Shaping International Environmental Law, Jonas Ebbesson and David Langlet, co-editors of the volume

Reflections

• Fifty Years of International Law-making on the Environment: Women Shaping Legal Principles and Solidarity, Claudia Ituarte-Lima, Senior Researcher at Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
• The Idea of the Environment: from Stockholm 1972 to Stockholm 2022, Sverker Sörlin, Professor of Environmental History at KTH Royal Institute of Technology
• Stockholm+50: Before, During and After, Johanna Lissinger Peitz, former Ambassador for the 2022 UN Stockholm+50 International Meeting, Senior Adviser at Swedish Ministry of Climate and Enterprise
• The Development of International Environmental Law: An NGO Perspective, Gustaf Lind, Secretary General at WWF Sweden

Panel discussion

Registration

By email to smc@juridicum.su.se by 5 October 2026.

Much welcome!