Legal Pathways to Sustainability Transition: Innovation and Resilience Conference

On 31 July – 1 August 2025, APCEL Academic Fellow Justin Lim participated in the ‘Legal Pathways to Sustainability Transition: Innovation and Resilience’ conference hosted by the University of Hong Kong. The conference is part of the ‘SMU-Sydney-HKU Law and Sustainability Conference Series’, which provides a platform for academia, industry, and government to regularly discuss and advance knowledge at the intersection of law and sustainability.

As part of ‘Panel 3: ESG and Corporate Responsibility’, Justin presented his paper titled ‘A Corporate Duty to Promote Sustainable Development?’ His presentation challenged how a duty to promote sustainable development for corporations is unlikely to address the interests of all stakeholders to sustainable development projects, and demands of courts a greater expertise in a corpus of law beyond that of private law. Overall, these developments are already being witnessed today in companies and before the courts, which prompts greater reflection on the role of corporations in the just transition.

Justin’s participation in the conference reflects APCEL’s commitment to advancing rigorous scholarship on a just transition and fostering early-career researchers’ engagement with global legal debates.