In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Environmental Law

19 Jan

[Debora N. Gunawan is an SJD student at the University of Michigan Law School] In late November 2025, a wave of torrential rains, cyclones, and monsoon-driven storms battered South and Southeast Asia. Devastating floods, landslides, and mudslides ravaged wide swathes of the region, from Sumatra in Indonesia to southern Malaysia, southern Thailand, Sri Lanka, and even the Philippines and Vietnam. Reports...

|
09 Jan

[Maud Sarliève and Dr Pauline Martini are associate research fellows at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London] On 4 December 2025, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched its groundbreaking Policy on Addressing Environmental Damage under the Rome Statute: severe environmental harm can now be prosecuted as an international crime. This document represents...

and |
01 Dec

[Sude Kınık is a legal trainee at Kabine Law Office in Istanbul, Turkey] The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its latest climate change judgment, Greenpeace Nordic and Others v. Norway on October 28th, following closely in the footsteps of its decision in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland. In this new case, the Court reaffirmed and applied the...

|
19 Nov

[This interview was conducted by Dr Stephanie Triefus, a researcher at the Asser Institute and Academic Coordinator for the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research]  The Annual T.M.C. Asser Lecture is an occasion for reflection on pressing questions of international law and is the Asser Institute’s flagship activity. Each year, the Asser Institute invites a distinguished scholar or practitioner to share...

|
12 Nov

[Omar Grech is Associate Professor within the Department of International Law, University of Malta] Several excellent posts on this blog have already explored different facets of the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change, including its treatment of state responsibility and obligations erga omnes. This post takes a different tack. It argues that the Opinion marks a doctrinal breakthrough for the concept...

|
07 Nov

[Amir Abbas Kiani is a collaborating researcher in International Law at Shiraz University, Iran] On July 23, 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its ‘historic’ Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change. As part of its reasoning, the Court examined the issue of lex specialis derogat legi generali (lex specialis) to determine “…the relationship between...

|
24 Oct

[Meng Wang is a PhD Candidate in the International Law Department at Maastricht University, researching the protection of water in armed conflict across different branches of Public International Law. Andrés Cáceres Solari is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of International Law, Faculty of Law of Maastricht University, researching the compatibility of international humanitarian law with modern warfare] On 6 June...

and |
22 Oct

[Quazi Omar Foysal is a Bangladeshi-qualified international lawyer, currently pursuing a PhD at La Trobe University, Australia] Given that the Request for Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change was limited to questions related to the obligations of States concerning climate change and the legal consequences of their breach in international law, the International Court of Justice...

|
06 Oct

[Bin Zhao holds a PhD in international law] Climate litigation has moved from national courts to international benches. On 9 April 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) spoke first. On 21 May 2024, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) followed. A year later, on 3 July 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) added...

|
03 Oct

[Milagros Mutsios Ramsay is a J.S.D. Candidate at Yale Law School. She currently serves as the Legal Advisor to the Presidency of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights] The Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Advisory Opinion OC-32/25 on Climate Emergency and Human Rights constitutes one of the most ambitious legal articulations of State’s obligations in the era of climate crisis. This...

|
03 Oct

[Mariana Cruz Astudillo holds a law degree from the University of Chile, belongs to the Colla First Nation, and is a research associate at the Centre of Law and Climate Change Studies at the University of Valparaíso (CEDYCC)] Introduction On July 3, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter the Court) issued Advisory Opinion OC-32/25 (hereinafter OC-32/25) in response to a...

|
02 Oct

[Ignacio Vásquez Torreblanca is the Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Climate Change Studies at the University of Valparaíso, Chile, a Research Assistant at the Max Planck Institute, Germany and a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, UK] Latin America is one of the regions most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but it is also a...

|