Biodiversity governance relies on scientific knowledge but what law does with that knowledge is far from straightforward. Legal systems don’t merely absorb ecological facts: they transform, filter, and reframe them. In doing so, law itself is reshaped. Simultaneously, scientific practices are shaped by legal frameworks: compressed into regulatory thresholds, adapted to procedural timelines, or excluded for failing to meet evidentiary standards. This session explores the dynamic, bidirectional relationship between law and science, and the complex practices and institutional spaces that result.
We invite contributions that critically examine how scientific knowledge is translated into legal and regulatory systems and how legal processes, in turn, shape the production, selection, and interpretation of the scientific practices, hypotheses, and forms of knowledge emerging in the biodiversity space. How do legal mandates, frameworks and preoccupations influence what counts as the “best available science”? How do legal and governance institutions navigate ecological uncertainty, plural knowledge systems, and competing interests? And how can regulatory and governance frameworks remain responsive to ecological realities without undermining legal legitimacy?
We particularly encourage interdisciplinary submissions, comparative work, case-studies and insights grounded in practice. This session aims to surface the assumptions, frictions, and creative possibilities that emerge when science and law attempt to speak to one another under pressure.