This eye-opening event was held from 15-17 June 2022 in Trento. It was co-organized by the European Sociological Association Research Network on Social Movements, the European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on Participation and Mobilization, and the UniTrento Department of Sociology and Social Research. The conference provided a space to discuss how crises are politicized and which phenomena anticipate what is coming next for collective action, bridging social movements and political participation research. I participated in a panel on “Agricultural and environmental contentious politics between grassroots and international law,” alongside amazing colleagues, and presented on agrarian movements in international law.
On 4 May 2022, the University of Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) held its X Anniversary Colloquium. SCELG members shared theoretical and practical insights reflecting on the following question: 2022 marks 50 years from Stockholm and 30 years from Rio. How will global environmental law and governance be shaped and developed over the next 30/50 years? I was invited to participate in a session on “Regulation and innovation: trends and challenges in environmental law and governance” and presented on the case of synthetic biology. The event featured fascinating discussions on different aspects and the future of global environmental law.
Held from 7-9 September 2021, in Bratislava, Slovakia, and online, the Earth System Governance conference was held under theme “Earth System Governance in turbulent times: prospects for political and behavioral responses.” A meeting point of the sustainability community, it offered a range of sessions on different aspects of environmental governance. My presentation on “Building an integrative framework for the fair and responsible governance of synthetic biology” gave an overview of the methodology, structure, research questions, and inspiration behind the SynBioGov project.
This chapter addresses biocultural community protocols (BCPs) and their potential to enable the political and legal empowerment of Indigenous Peoples and local communities for community-based implementation of development aspirations and provisions on access and benefit-sharing (ABS). We conclude that the attributes of BCPs, including their outward-facing character to inform external stakeholders, their forward-looking or proactive potential to outline communities’ visions and their inward-looking potential to contribute to community building and the construction of collective action beyond the legal realm, mean that BCPs can contribute to creating legal spaces for ensuring the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
The chapter is fruit of my collaboration with L. Parks on a research agenda complementary to the SynBioGov project, concerning Indigenous Peoples’ rights and participation in international biodiversity governance, including in search of socially-appropriate developmental and technological pathways
Request a copy of the chapter by emailing elsa.tsioumani[at]gmail.com Book table of contents
Part of special issue on the “Ethics and practice of biodiversity science: how hidden moral assumptions impact conservation research and policy,” this article reviews opportunities for, and selected outcomes of, the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in the processes of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Meaningful participation is understood as a collaborative process based on the recognition of IPLCs and their contribution to biodiversity management. The CBD is currently the main instrument for global biodiversity governance, enjoying almost-universal application – with the notable exception of the USA. It arguably provides the most advanced framework for the participation of IPLCs among the multilateral environmental agreements. Following a discussion of challenges regarding concepts and terminology, we provide brief overviews of IPLCs’ contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the evolution of the CBD framework to partially recognize these. We then focus on two case studies: the negotiation and adoption of the Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and fair and equitable benefit-sharing; and the negotiation of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. On the basis of a literature review, content analysis of UN documents, and participant observation at CBD meetings, we combine legal and sociological analysis to find that early gains towards building collaborative spaces for IPLCs in CBD processes in the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol seemed to be receding in the negotiation of the Global Biodiversity Framework, until adoption of the final text which surprisingly integrated a strong rights-based approach, for the first time in the history of the CBD.
This article is fruit of my collaboration with L. Parks on a research agenda complementary to the SynBioGov project, concerning Indigenous Peoples’ rights and participation in international biodiversity governance, including in search of socially-appropriate developmental and technological pathways.
This piece, part of a Ragion Pratica thematic section on field research, ethics, and interdisciplinarity in legal scholarship, explores the engagement of an international lawyer with interdisciplinary methodologies for the study of environmental sustainability and emerging biotechnologies. Using an autoethnographic approach, I discuss key characteristics of the legal discipline, including the link between training and practice, the focus on doctrinal approaches, and the approach on methods and methodology, juxtaposing the latter with perspectives from social scientists. I address the need to challenge basic concepts and question biases and limitations of Western legal scholarship. I explore the usefulness of qualitative methods of social sciences for international law research, and share tools for normative work involving life sciences. Highlighting the need to build interdisciplinary competencies to address complex law and governance questions, I call for rethinking disciplinary boundaries and forming communities of knowledge and practice.
Law and Governance of synthetic biology 