We warmly invite you to join us, online or in person, at a Workshop on “Global climate change litigation and the rise of international adjudication”. The workshop is hosted by the Centre for International Law and Globalisation, Southampton Law School, University of Southampton, in collaboration with the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment and will take place on 30 June in Southampton (Highfield Campus), United Kingdom.
Register here: Workshop Attendance Questionnaire (office.com)
Background:
In the past few years, activists and lawyers have increasingly turned to national courts in an effort to secure greater action by states to address the causes and impacts of climate change (the Sabin Centre’s Climate Litigation Database contains information on over 1000 climate cases brought in recent years).
Very recently, there has been an important development in the area of climate litigation: for the first time, a number of cases are being brought to international and regional courts. These include several requests for advisory opinions just submitted or in the process of being drafted:
- a request for an Advisory Opinion submitted by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS);
- an application by Chile and Colombia to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) to clarify the involvement of Latin American states in climate emergency matters;
- the tabling of a UN resolution requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on human rights and climate change, which had been requested and adopted by the UNGA following an initiative by Vanuatu; and
- a pan-continental initiative of African civil society and community-based organisations to request an advisory opinion from the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights on the human rights obligations of African states in relation to the impacts of climate change.
Workshop Programme: