In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Environmental Law

07 Sep

Call for Papers Ecocide as an international crime? Perspectives from domestic and international law: The International Crimes Database (ICD), hosted by the T.M.C. Asser Institute in the Hague, invites submissions of short articles for publication in the online paper series ‘ICD Briefs’ on the theme: ‘Ecocide as an international crime? Perspectives from domestic and international law’. The recent proposal by the Stop Ecocide...

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30 Aug

Events An International Crime of Ecocide: The Proposal, Future Opportunities, and Challenges: You are invited to join a discussion on the international crime of ecocide, hosted by the American Society of International Law (ASIL), organized by its International Criminal Law Interest Group and as part of ASIL’s Signature Topic on Climate Change on September 15, 2021, at 12pm EST (New York)....

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09 Aug

Sponsored Announcement The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) provides training that combines world leading research with an applied perspective. Our courses are designed to enable legal practitioners, government officials, students, academics, and civil society organisations to gain expert insights and to deepen their knowledge in areas of international law. For autumn 2021, BIICL has expanded its programme of short courses to bring a...

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29 Jul

Michael Karnavas is a criminal-defence attorney and former President of the Association of Defence Counsel of the ICTY. He currently represents Paul Gicheru at the ICC. This post first appeared on his personal blog. … man has consciously and unconsciously inflicted irreparable damage to the environment in times of war and peace.   Richard A. Falk, 1973 And will continue to inflict irreparable...

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21 Jul

[Carlos A. Cruz Carrillo is a PhD Candidate at the University of Basel. Twitter: @Carcru1118.] The rule of law for oceans faces the challenges presented by climate change. Scientific evidence shows that climate change is causing menacing issues in the oceans. For example, sea-level rise, acidification, and deoxygenation of the oceans, amongst others. (see: 2019 IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate). In...

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16 Jul

[Darryl Robinson is a Professor at Queen’s University, Faculty of Law (Canada), specializing in international criminal justice.] In part one of this post, I mapped out the main controversies and choices to be made in defining ecocide.  I now introduce the most difficult conundrum: how to align ecocide with environmental law.  The problems are not initially obvious.  Kevin Heller’s initial posts understandably...

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16 Jul

[Darryl Robinson is a Professor at Queen’s University, Faculty of Law (Canada), specializing in international criminal justice.] In recent weeks, there has been lively debate on the crime of ecocide, in response to the proposed definition from the International Expert Panel (see here, here, here, here, here,  here, here, and here).  In two posts, I offer you an overview – or a...

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01 Jul

[Arvind Ganesan is business and human rights director at Human Rights Watch.] The United Nations formally recognized a decade ago that businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights. It was a groundbreaking development. 10 years later, it’s clear that it was only a first step: we need laws that enforce companies’ duty to protect workers and communities from abuse and hold them accountable if they...

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28 Jun

[Doug Cassel is Emeritus Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School.] The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this month in Nestle USA Inc. v. Doe that “general corporate activity” in the U.S. is not a sufficient domestic basis to warrant Alien Tort Statute (ATS) jurisdiction over claims against a U.S. corporation for alleged human rights violations overseas. The media response generally echoed that of the...

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24 Jun

[Gabrielle Holly is a Senior Adviser in the Human Rights and Business Department at the Danish Institute for Human Rights and an experienced commercial disputes practitioner. You can find her on twitter at @Gabriellellell.]  In recent years we have seen tremendous momentum behind moves to introduce mandatory human rights due diligence obligations in law, both at the national level and at the international...

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24 Jun

[Penelope A. Bergkamp is a graduate from the National University of Singapore and KU Leuven, and law practitioner in Brussels.] Corporate liability and supply chain liability (SCL) in particular are experiencing a rapid and dramatic revolution. Supply chain liability (“SCL”) is the liability of a multinational corporation for damages caused by its business partners, often in developing countries. The term business partners refers to any business partner,...

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23 Jun

[Paul Mougeolle is a representative of the association Notre Affaire à Tous, legal researcher for the NGO Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Ph.D. candidate at University of Paris Nanterre and University of Potsdam.] A wind of change is currently blowing in climate change litigation. Plaintiffs secure pioneering wins before the highest courts of Colombia, the Netherlands, Ireland, France and Germany. On the 26th of May...

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