Environmental Law

[Ekaterina Aristova is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford and Carlos Lopez is a Senior Legal Advisor at the International Commission of Jurists.] The much-awaited judgment by the UK Supreme Court (SC) in Okpabi and others v Royal Dutch Shell Plc and another (Okpabi) was handed down in an online hearing on Friday 12 February 2021 some five years...

Call for Papers Trade, Law and Development Special Issue on Trade and Technology: The Trade, Law and Development Journal is now inviting unpublished manuscripts for publication of its Special Issue on "Trade and Technology: Rebooting Global Trade for the Digital Millennium" (Vol. 13 No. 1, Winter ’21 Issue) in the form of Articles, Notes, Comments and Book Reviews. An illustrative list of areas under...

Featured Announcement BIICL Training Courses Spring 2021 The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) now offers training courses in a virtual format. BIICL virtual courses are led by the Institute's leading researchers, together with external experts and distinguished practitioners. The course format consists of a series of sessions in which live teaching is offered via Zoom. Participants are able to...

[Jefferi Hamzah Sendut holds a law degree from St John’s College, University of Cambridge, and an LLM (Public International Law) (Distinction) from the London School of Economics and Political Science]. For prospective claimant States, litigating to prompt the adoption of more robust climate change mitigation measures by major greenhouse gas emitting States comes with a host of legal and diplomatic hurdles. This post addresses...

Announcements Top international lawyers to draft definition of 'Ecocide': International lawyer Philippe Sands QC and international judge Justice Florence Mumba are to co-chair an expert drafting panel on the legal definition of “ecocide” as a potential international crime that could sit alongside War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity.  Launching with preparatory work this month, and set to draft the definition...

Events On 21 October 2020, the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute is co-hosting a virtual side event with the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights to mark the launch the following day of her pathbreaking new report to the General Assembly on CLIMATE CHANGE AND CULTURAL EXTINCTION: A Human Rights Crisis. The negative impacts of climate change on the enjoyment...

[Maria Antonia Tigre is the Director for Latin America at the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment.] In September 2020, the Brazilian Supreme Court held the country’s first public hearing on climate change. For the first time, a climate litigation case reached Brazil’s highest court, marking an historic landmark for the country’s legal system. A broad range of...

[Malcolm Wu is an LL.M. candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science.] Introduction Ioane Teitiota is from the sinking island nation of Kiribati. In 2013, he made a historic application for refugee status in New Zealand on the grounds of risk of life due to the adverse effects of climate change in his home country. Nonetheless, the rejection of his application and appeal by the New...

[Madhav Mallya is a lecturer at the Jindal Global Law School.] When a country dilutes its environmental and human rights protections in a bid to attract more investment, it is then said to be engaged in a “Race to the Bottom” competition.  A reading of India’s new Draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification makes it easier to get environmental clearances by excluding several projects from public consultation....

[Tarini Mehta is Assistant Professor of Environmental Law, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Director of the Environmental Law and Science Advocacy Forum at Jindal School of Environment & Sustainability, O.P. Jindal Global University, India.] [This symposium was convened by Shirleen Chin, founder of Green Transparency.  Shirleen was inspired by attending an Expert Working Group on international criminal law and the protection of...

[Tarini Mehta is Assistant Professor of Environmental Law, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Director of the Environmental Law and Science Advocacy Forum at Jindal School of Environment & Sustainability, O.P. Jindal Global University, India.] [This symposium was convened by Shirleen Chin, founder of Green Transparency.  Shirleen was inspired by attending an Expert Working Group on international criminal law and the protection of...

[Anastacia Greene is an Immigration Clinical Fellow with the Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Clinic (IPVAC) at the Levin College of Law.] [This symposium was convened by Shirleen Chin, founder of Green Transparency.  Shirleen was inspired by attending an Expert Working Group on international criminal law and the protection of the environment at the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law in...