2008 marked the beginning of the Law and Culture Conference, with a group from the Otago University Faculty of Law visiting the University of the South Pacific School of Law.

The programme for the week included social events, a conference and a debate on a legal topic. The conference programme and all conference papers can be found in in volume 12(1) of the Journal of South Pacific Law. The debate, which was won by the Otago team arguing for the affirmative, was on the following topic:

Motion: That the definition of a "refugee" in the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees should be expanded to cover "environmental refugees".

The issues to be addressed should include the following:

the adequacy of other legal mechanisms for addressing the problems of "environmental refugees"

whether an adequate definition of an "environmental refugee" can be constructed, that does not have unacceptable consequences

whether the position of environmental refugees is analogous to that of persons experiencing serious human rights violations, and so demands a similar international response.