On August 29—30, 2018, the 5th EU-China Conference on Environmental Law co-organized by Ghent University, Chinese Journal of Environmental Law, European U4 University Network and RIEL was successfully held in Ghent, Belgium.
The theme of the conference is “Green law, economic instruments and environmental crime”, which attract 50 Chinese and foreign scholars from top universities and excellent research institutions in more 20 countries and regions to attend the conference. For example, those scholars are come from Wuhan University, Renmin University of China, Tianjin University, Sun Yat-sen University, Ocean University of China, University of Hong Kong, University of Macau, Ghent University, Université libre de Bruxelles, The University of Göttingen, Goethe University Frankfurt, University of Helsinki, Maastricht University, University of Groningen, Utrecht University, Uppsala University, University of Salamanca, University of Birmingham, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Uniwersytet w Białymstoku, Charles University in Prague, Indiana University, Pace University and Stony Brook University.
On the morning of August 29, a brief opening ceremony was held. Prof. Qin Tianbao, director of RIEL, and Prof. Frank MAES of Ghent university of Belgium both delivered speeches. Prof. Qin Tianbao pointed out that it has been 12 years since the two sides started cooperation in 2006 and the cooperation has achieved fruitful results. In Chinese culture, 12 years is a circle, which indicates that the cooperation between the two sides will start again and achieve greater results. After the opening ceremony, Chinese and foreign scholars conducted in-depth and heated discussion on climate change, carbon emission trading, environmental tax, natural resources protection and environmental crime.
Prof. Qin Tianbao and Prof. Ben Boer were invited to host and comment on two discussion units separately: “climate change and emission trading system” and “natural resources: protection and management”. Besides that, Prof. Qin Tianbao made a speech entitled “Can the problem of coercive collection be improved after the environmental “Free to Tax Reform” in China?”. The title of Prof. Zhang Zhiwei’s report is “Collective obligations and the limits of green law”. Prof. Ben Boer made a speech named “The Green Belt and Road: A challenge for environmental law”. Dr. He Miao made a speech entitled “Recent challenges in managing protected areas in China”. Dr. Wang Jinpeng made a speech named “Reflection on subsidy adjustments and fisheries conservation in China”. Dr. Dai Liping’s report is “The limits of integrated water resources management: a case study of Liangzi Lake basin in China European Law”.
Since the establishment of the formal cooperation relationship between Wuhan University and Ghent University in 2006, the two sides have made fruitful achievements in teacher exchange, student exchange and cooperative research. And the Eu-China environmental law conference has become a high-level and regular academic exchange platform. Its international influence has been increasing year by year and it is attracting more and more excellent environmental law scholars from all over the world to participate in it. Since the 4th conference, the organizers have adopted the internationally accepted mode of “participation in the conference by writing”, which is to select the articles and authors from the abstracts of papers through the anonymous evaluation of Chinese and foreign experts. Chinese Journal of Environmental Law and Climate Law, the two journals of RIEL, will select papers from those conference papers.
It is reported that the successfully holding of the 5th EU-China Conference on Environmental Law not only realized the goal of sharing the cutting-edge scientific research in environmental law, but also provided a wonderful platform for Chinese and foreign environmental law colleagues to enhance understanding and promote exchange. This will also consolidate and expand the status and influence of RIEL in Europe and even the whole world. This is also an important progress and symbolic achievement of the construction goal of “internationalization” of RIEL.
