NUJS holds National Environmental Law Workshop Two-day event sees paper presentations mock tribunals and mock UNFCCC session

The Nature Committee of the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (NUJS) recently hosted a national workshop on environmental law on March 10-11, 2012. The two-day workshop saw participation from several law schools across the country and also witnessed a mock Green Tribunal and a mock UNFCCC session. Speakers and moderators included Sanjay Upadhaya, founder of the Enviro-Legal Defence Firm and RV Anuradha, partner at Clarus Law Associates..Speaking to Bar & Bench, convenor of the Nature Committee Vibhav Mithal said that one of the basic goals of the Committee was to increase awareness about environmental law and this workshop was a step in that direction. In fact, the idea for this workshop was gien by Sanjay Upadhaya who suggested that instead of having another conference, the Nature Committee should think about hosting events which create environmental awareness amongst students..Over a dozen papers were presented in the course of three sessions with the top three papers being selected for publication. The workshop also saw a mock “Green Tribunal” being held wherein the problem was based on the events surrounding Posco’s attempts to establish a SEZ in Orissa. Student s were then divided into two sides and told to argue the matter before the “judges” (who were also students). As Mithal elaborates, the singular goal of the “informal discussion” was to create greater awareness about Green Tribunals in particular and environmental law in general. Mithal was also surprised to note that in one of the mock Tribunals, the parties eventually managed to reach a mutually beneficial agreement..The workshop also saw a mock session based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). Here, students were made to represent specific countries, organisations etc and allowed to voice their opinions. Participants were then given time to interact with each other and form a “bloc” of like minded nations. During the “sesion” debates were held on various issues including sustainable development and transfer of technology. All in all, it was an interesting to see students reflecting the arguments taken by countries in the real world..Mithal (pictured with the Nature Committee) hopes to make this workshop an annual event and wants the Nature Committee to hold the conference next year as well. He has already started drawing out plans to approach the sponsors for early funding..Apart from this workshop, Mithal stresses that the Nature Committee will continue to conduct events at the college level says Mithal. “The entire idea of the Nature Committee is to raise environmental awareness and whatever activities are in sync with this objective, we will take those up.”.Mithal also wanted to thank the various sponsors for the workshop including Platinum Sponsors (Sahara India Pariwar), Associate Sponsors (Enviro-legal Defence Firm and West Bengal Pollution Control Board), Media Partner- Lawctopus, Publishing Partner- Journal of Indian Laws and Society and Local Partner- Nature, Environment and Wildlife Society ( NEWS).