SMU-Sydney-HKU Law & Sustainability Conference: Law in a Hyperconnected World – Joining the Dots for a Sustainable Future - Sanita van Wyk
From 13-14 July 2023, Singapore Management University, University of Sydney and Hong Kong University hosted the Law & Sustainability Conference: Law in a Hyperconnected World – Joining the Dots for a Sustainable Future.
We live in a hyperconnected world. Ecosystems, societies and economies are linked like never before. As societies, economies and the environment are inextricably linked, it makes no sense to think about, let alone regulate, each of these systems in isolation. Recent global reports such as the United Nations’ Environment Program (UNEP)’s Making Peace with Nature highlights the failure of governance systems to address interconnected global challenges in a holistic manner as well as the perverse outcomes that result from the lack of integrated approaches. Transnational approaches provide an important means of harnessing the opportunities created by increasingly urban and digitally linked societies. It is critical that new forms of laws and regulation, governance, societal organization, communication and the transfer of ideas and capital are taken into account when aiming to address sustainability. Laws at the international, transnational and domestic level are, however, currently ill-equipped to address the hyperconnected challenges of today, and do not sufficiently anticipate the emerging risks and opportunities of the future. It is to this gap that this Conference seeks to contribute.