Call for Abstracts – Deadline 13 April

Call for abstracts

Implementing the Nature Restoration Regulation: legal challenges and opportunities

L’attuazione del Regolamento sul Ripristino della Natura: sfide giuridiche e opportunità

6 – 7 November 2025

Università degli Studi Roma Tre – University of Roma Tre, Department of Law

Call for abstracts

The 2019 European Green Deal set out the ambition that “All EU policies should contribute to preserving and restoring Europe’s natural capital.” This transversal approach to nature aims to overcome the policy fragmentation that has historically been one of the causes of biodiversity loss. Nevertheless, integrating the objective of protecting and restoring biodiversity into other areas of EU action—above all agricultural policy, but also the green energy transition, transport, social policy—has already given rise to conflicts. The recently adopted Nature Restoration Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 sets out a series of far-reaching, innovative obligations that the Member States must begin to implement quickly and at a broad scale, yet the implementation of this Regulation has the potential to worsen these conflicts or give rise to new ones. Nevertheless, the need to take swift, effective action to combat biodiversity loss is clear, as the failure to do so would not only risk the irreversible loss of nature, but of the many ecosystem services on which the European economy, and well-being, depends.

Besides the potential for conflict, there are numerous challenges that must be addressed to effectively implement the ambitious targets set out in the Regulation. Among these, one challenge will be ensuring that there is an adequate legal framework to promote both public and private financing of restoration projects. Reconciling the need for effectiveness with the principle of subsidiarity and the role of subnational entities is another. Moreover, implementing the Regulation will require public authorities to strike a fair balance between scientific considerations against the social, cultural and economic interests of local peoples by ensuring there are effective opportunities for public participation.

The conference seeks to explore the potential role of the law in combatting biodiversity loss and implementing the Nature Restoration Regulation.

What role should the legal community and the academic community have in implementing the obligations set out in the Nature Restoration Regulation? More specifically, how could legal and constitutional principles help to address the numerous areas of conflict between the objective of “bringing nature back into our lives,” as set out in the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and other areas of law? How do biodiversity restoration obligations fit into the existing legal framework in other areas such as water law, agricultural policy, territorial planning, chemical regulation, fisheries policy, or climate law? How can evolving trends in biodiversity litigation support the effectiveness of the law in this area? Are the current institutional arrangements adequate to ensure that Member States and their subnational entities comply with their biodiversity obligations under EU law? What is the potential for innovative financing, such as payment for ecosystem services or results-based payment systems, to upscale restoration efforts? How can programming and planning measures be more effectively deployed to achieve the objectives of the Nature Restoration Regulation? How can efforts to combat land degradation contribute to the other objectives of EU environmental law, including its biodiversity objectives?

We invite contributions in particular relating to EU, international, constitutional and private law, but topics related to other areas of law may be considered.

Practical information

Abstracts for conference presentations must be under 400 words and may be submitted in either English or Italian to morganeleanor.harris@uniroma3.it. Please send the abstract together with a CV by 13 April 2025.

Abstracts will be reviewed and selected persons informed by 5 May 2025.

Participants will be invited to submit their written contributions for publication, subject to peer review. The deadline for contributions will be 30 November 2025. Further information will be provided.

For any inquiries, please contact morganeleanor.harris@uniroma3.it.

Organising committee

Prof. Roberto Baratta, Prof. Giuseppe Spoto, Prof. Chiara Cellerino, Dr. Morgan Eleanor Harris, Dr. Katia Laffusa

Funding

The conference is organized within the PRIN 2022 PNRR ‘RINASCI’ funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU, Mission 4 Component 1, CUP F53D23012010001.