On June 21, 2016, EJS Clinic co-director and CIGI International Law Research Program Senior Research Fellow David Estrin will co-host two special side events on climate change litigation at the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law's annual Colloquium in Oslo, Norway. If you will be in Oslo, check out these important events!
Access to Justice in Environmental Adjudication
The first event, chaired by Principal Judge Laurie Newhook of the Environment Court of New Zealand, is a forum on how environmental courts and judges can enable access to environmental justice while operating efficiently in increasingly complex legal and natural environments. The event is presented by the International Forum for Environmental Judges and is open only to registered participants in the IUCNAEL Colloquium.
Using Domestic Litigation to Limit Dangerous Climate Change
The second event is free and open to all. Chaired by David Estrin and presented by the CIGI International Law Research Program, this panel discussion will ask why citizen-initiated climate change litigation has had some success on three continents and how it might be advanced in other jurisdictions. Speakers include Roger Cox, the lawyer who argued the pathbreaking Urgenda case in the Netherlands, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, who recently ordered Pakistan to take concrete climate change adaptation measures, and Andrea Rodgers, a lawyer for Our Children's Trust in their Washington State lawsuit.
Click here for more details about these events.
David explores the legal issues raised by these events in his new paper in the CIGI Papers series. The paper, entitled "Limiting Dangerous Climate Change: The Critical Role of Citizen Suits and Domestic Courts—Despite the Paris Agreement," is serendipitously labelled CIGI Paper No. 101 as it provides an up-to-the-minute account of "Domestic Climate Litigation 101," to use North American university jargon.
The paper is required reading for anyone interested in the role of citizen-initiated domestic litigation in combatting climate change.
