CFP: The Law And Unnatural Disasters: Legal Adaptations To Climate Change

This just in:

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review is pleased to announce a call for papers for its 2018 Symposium, “The Law and Unnatural Disasters: Legal Adaptations to Climate Change,” to be held on Friday, February 16, 2018.

The United States has experienced literally hundreds of weather disasters with damage over $1 billion since 1980, and the number of billion-dollar-plus weather related disasters has risen from an average of two per year in the 1980s to an annual average of 10.6 for the 2012 to 2016 period. And although these figures capture much of the direct economic costs of disasters, they fail to reflect indirect and non-economic costs like loss of life, displacement, and community disruption. The market has not spawned robust adaptation; development subsidized by federal insurance continues in vulnerable areas. Nor does any coherent body of law exist in the United States at either the federal or state level that is aimed at reducing vulnerability to climate change.

This perfect storm of market and law failure presents a timely opportunity for scholars and practitioners to contribute to the discourse on climate change adaptation lawmaking in the United States. Potential areas ripe for scholarly examination include but are not limited to (1) adaptation issues specific to vulnerable regions or sectors, such as the southern United States, or agriculture and forestry; (2) obstacles local or state governments face with respect to adaptation lawmaking, and strategies for overcoming these obstacles; (3) mechanisms by which local, state or federal lawmaking can facilitate adaptive as opposed to maladaptive development; (4) the state of the law with respect to NEPA and consideration of effects of future climate change on proposed actions; (5) the use of land use controls to facilitate adaptive development, including, for example, condemnation, development moratoria and rolling easements; (6) “retreat” as an adaptation strategy; (7) liability of government entities for failure to adapt or negligent adaptation; and (8) takings liability jurisprudence with respect to temporary takings or negligent adaptation.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review will publish articles from the symposium in an issue of volume 40 slated for release in the fall of 2018. We encourage all interested potential authors to respond. Authors should submit an abstract and a cover letter to Camille Neemann, Symposium Editor, at [email protected]. The deadline for submissions of article proposals is October 2, 2017; completed articles will be due at the time of the symposium in February. Please feel free to email Ms. Neemann with any questions.

Comments

[Deep State Special Legal Counsel]

I'll put it to you in non-academic terms. No need for a "call for papers." Maybe a two word paper. "Claim Denied." No five dollar words that make eyes glaze over. The real disaster are the insurance companies. They pay no dough to friend or foe and delay, deny and don't pay. Sorry, don't mean to offend any academics, but that's the bottom line.