Transdisciplinary Seminar on
Law, Probability and Risk
Environmental Policy and Regulation
to be held on 3rd and 4th June, 2005
at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, 14 India Street,
Edinburgh EH3 6EZ
The transdisciplinary seminar programme comprises six workshops on law, probability and risk in
three areas: criminal investigation, penal justice and environmental regulation. This workshop on
Environmental Policy and Regulation will be the fourth workshops held during 2004-5. A general
aim of the transdisciplinary seminar programme is to consider the relationship of law, probability
and risk to human rights and participants include academics and professionals in a range of
disciplines whose papers will explore how probability and risk arise and can be incorporated in the
search for justice.
The series is sponsored by the ESRC and there is no registration fee but attendance is restricted.
Please contact Ron Smith (ris@ceh.ac.uk) or Colin Aitken (c.g.g.aitken@ed.ac.uk) about
participation or attendance at this workshop. Presenters are encouraged to develop their papers for
the journal Law, Probability and Risk (http://lpr.oupjournals.org/). Details of earlier seminars in
the series may be found on http://www.lprseminars.org/
INVITED SPEAKERS
Montserrat Fuentes (Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University)
The use of statistics within a regulatory framework
Louise Shaxson (Defra consultant) and Marian Scott (University of Glasgow)
Evidence-based environmental policy
Jenny Steele (Department of Law, University of Southampton)
Risks and Legal Theory - a philosophical approach to environmental law
Geert van Calster (Institute of Energy and Environmental Law, K.U.Leuven)
The impact of European Union regulatory approaches within environmental law and policy
Ian Thomson (Department of Accounting & Finance, University of Strathclyde)
Mapping sustainability indicators and sustainable development policies of the
Scottish Executive: misalignment, misguided and missed opportunities.
Further background information – see also http://www.lprseminars.org
ESRC transdisciplinary seminar series: LAW, PROBABILITY AND RISK
The Joseph Bell Centre for Forensic Statistics and Legal Reasoning (http://www.josephbell.org/)
has been awarded support from the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) of the
UK for a series of six seminars to be held in the period October 1st 2003 to September 30th 2005.
The seminar pairs in the series are on (a) Criminal Investigations, (b) the Penal Justice System, and
(c) Environmental Policy and Regulation. One aim of the overall series is to establish common
ground amongst these ideas and contributions from all speakers towards this synthesis will be very
welcome.
The aims and objectives of the seminar series are to provide a transdisciplinary forum that
facilitates:
a)
a scholarly exchange of different methodologies (used in the fields of operations research,
statistics and mathematics, artificial intelligence, forensic science, criminology and environmental
science) for the calculation and assessment of risk in the legal environment;
b)
a study of specific applications of probabilistic reasoning in legal and regulatory fields, such
as the evaluation of evidence in criminal investigations, definitions of risk in environmental policy
and regulation, and risk assessment of criminal offenders in the justice system;
c)
critical interchanges among lawyers and criminologists, social scientists, physical scientists,
artificial intelligence scientists and statisticians about reasoning in a legal setting; and
d)
a refinement of techniques and applications of probabilistic reasoning on legal and
regulatory questions
in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), leading to further research
and dissemination through publication in peer-reviewed journals and debate through a dedicated
website. It is hoped this debate will continue beyond the life-span of the seminars.
The seminars will be held at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences
(http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/icms/) in Edinburgh. Attendance is restricted to about 30 participants.
Anyone wishing to attend should contact either Ron Smith (ris@ceh.ac.uk) or Colin Aitken
(c.g.g.aitken@ed.ac.uk). Participants will be encouraged to submit papers to the journal
‘Law, Probability and Risk' (http://lpr.oupjournals.org/).
There is no registration fee but attendance is restricted. Anyone wishing to attend should send an
abstract, a note of their preferred seminar topic and a brief CV to the Joseph Bell Centre, Old
College, The University of Edinburgh, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL. (phone: 0131 650
9704, fax 0131 662 0724; e-mail jbc.enquiries@ed.ac.uk). More information, including details
of earlier seminars are on the seminar website: www.lprseminars.org.
The dates of the remaining two seminars are:
14th-15th October 2005 The Penal Justice System II
2nd-3rd December 2005
Criminal Investigation II