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Climate Change And Human Health: A Synthesis Of Scientific Research And State Obligations Under International Law, Jessica A. Wentz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This report synthesizes the latest scientific research on the human health effects of climate change and discusses the legal implications of this research, specifically with regards to State obligations under international law. In doing so, the report seeks to provide insights on issues to be analyzed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its upcoming advisory opinion on the legal obligations of States with respect to climate change. It also seeks to enhance the capacity of judges, advocates, and governments to understand these issues in the context of current and future proceedings involving international law obligations related to climate …

Advisory Opinion On Climate Change: Summary Of Written Observations Submitted To The Inter-American Court Of Human Rights (Part 1), Maria Antonia Tigre

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

On January 9, 2023, the Foreign Ministers of Chile and Colombia requested an advisory opinion from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) on the scope of state obligations for responding to the climate emergency under the frame of international human rights law and, specifically, under the American Convention on Human Rights. Within this context, the IACtHR received a total of 255 amicus brief submissions.

This report includes summaries of the amicus briefs submitted to the Court. Due to the number of submissions received and the short timeframe prior to the hearings, the report is divided into parts. This first …

U'Wa Indigenous People Vs. Columbia: Potential Applications Of The Escazu Agreement, Ariana Lippi

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Though the case is ongoing, and results are still to be seen, it in many ways sets a precedent for indigenous communities in Latin America seeking redress for environmental and cultural injustices. With Colombia’s recent ratification of The Escazú Regional Agreement (the Agreement herein) in 2022, this case presents a unique opportunity for implementation of the Agreement and greater accountability within existing domestic legislation.

Incentivizing Sustainability In American Enterprise: Lessons From Finnish Model, Vasa T. Dunham

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

The disparate climate performances of Finland and the United States, two of the wealthiest countries in the world, bring to light the question of how corporate responsibility has been inspired in each jurisdiction. Having established the urgency of the climate crisis and the importance of corporate behavior in optimizing a given country’s approach to protection of the global environment, an examination of each nation’s legal frameworks may shed light on features of the corporate regime that are effective in advancing sustainability goals and those that are not.22 Part I of this paper establishes a comparative framework by providing background on …

An International Law Framework For Climate-Aligned Investment Governance, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Elena Klonsky, Fanny Marie Everard, Qiaozi Guanglin, Tyler Alviano, Justin Cuddihey, Mary Wang

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

The January 2024 CCSI Working Paper, An International Law Framework for Climate-Aligned Investment Governance, outlines a framework — and invites and hopes to inspire further thinking, research, and discussion — on how to bridge gaps and build cohesion among various areas of international law relevant to investment in climate mitigation and adaptation. The working paper identifies areas of international law that are or could be relevant to investment governance, highlights points of inconsistency, and proposes a framework to reform and integrate international law with the objective of promoting and facilitating climate investment flows and achieving climate-aligned regulation of investment.

U'Wa Indigenous People Vs. Columbia: Potential Applications Of The Escazu Agreement, Ariana Lippi

PEEL Student Scholarship

Though the case is ongoing, and results are still to be seen, it in many ways sets a precedent for indigenous communities in Latin America seeking redress for environmental and cultural injustices. With Colombia’s recent ratification of The Escazú Regional Agreement (the Agreement herein) in 2022, this case presents a unique opportunity for implementation of the Agreement and greater accountability within existing domestic legislation.

Determining An Effective Regulatory Framework For Businesses To Report On The Environment, Climate, And Human Rights, Paco Mengual

Pace International Law Review

The objective of this article is to identify the existing dynamics and clarify the reasoning behind reporting on environmental, climate, and human rights information in search of effective and binding frameworks to enhance transparency. To that effect, this article relates the evolution from a corporate sustainable business focus to reporting on environmental social and governance and increasing corporate accountability. It then expands on defining non- financial information and ESG reporting with regards to recent European Union Regulations (SFDR, Taxonomy) as well as the challenges associated with defining sustainable investments. This article aims to compare and understand the various regulatory strategies …

Criminalizing Environmental Degradation And Devastation: New Prospects For The Icc Rome Statute, Kelly Pisimisi

American University International Law Review

Over the last decade, steadily increasing voices are ringing the tocsin to the international community for the impact of human activities on climate and their potential consequences on human life and dignity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its recent (6th) Assessment Report, confirmed this assertion. Greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions (particularly CO2), as well as the retreat of arctic glaciers and the subsequent sea level rise causing—among other issues—the acidification of the oceanic waters, are some of the most evident human-induced implications on climate and the environment.

Lessons In Movement Lawyering From The Ferguson Uprising, Maggie Ellinger-Locke

Human Rights Brief

Michael Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. That day, I was on vacation in Michigan with my family, hanging on the beach and playing in the water. My father passed away from liver cancer exactly four months before, and I made the decision to close down his law practice in the St. Louis, Missouri area, and move to Washington, DC, where my longterm partner had taken a job. The trip to Michigan was supposed to be a stopover on my way to DC; my car was packed to the brim.

Youth Voices For Human Rights Litigation In The Face Of Climate Change, Mckenzie Gallagher

Human Rights Brief

In the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), six young activists, age eleven to twentyfour, filed a case against thirty-two countries claiming violations of their human rights related to climate change. The Grand Chambers of the ECtHR heard the case, Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and Others, on September 27, 2023, but the court has yet to issue an opinion on the admissibility and merits of the claim. The case was granted priority status and deferred directly to the Grand Chambers due to the importance of the issue, climate change.

Law, Labour And Landscape In A Just Transition, Adrian A. Smith, Dayna Nadine Scott

Articles & Book Chapters

Taking conflicts over new solar energy projects on the agricultural landscape in the global North as its backdrop, the chapter demonstrates how work and labour (including that performed in the North by workers from the global South) are erased both by the opponents and the proponents of such projects. The erasure is consistent with prevailing ways of knowing the human-environment nexus, shaped by an underlying political economy derivative of how international law has constructed and maintained the foundational liberal mythology that separates labour from land. Grounded in our commitment to pursuing a ‘just transition’ to decarbonisation – that is to …

Introduction To The Symposium On Feminist Approaches To International Law Thirty Years On: Still Alienating Oscar?, Catherine Powell, Adrien K. Wing

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Rights? The Manifest Functions Of Truth And Reconciliation Commissions And The Ambivalence Towards Economic, Social, And Cultural Rights, Cosmas Emeziem

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Making America A Better Place For All: Sustainable Development Recommendations For The Biden Administration, William Snape

PEEL Faculty Scholarship

In 2015, the United Nations Member States, including the United States, unanimously approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. The SDGs are nonbinding; each nation is to implement them based on its own priorities and circumstances. This Article argues that the SDGs are a critical normative framework the United States should use to improve human quality of life, freedom, and opportunity by integrating economic and social development with environmental protection. It collects the recommendations of 22 experts on steps that the Biden-Harris Administration should take now to advance each of the SDGs. It is part of …

Note: Building Blocks Of A Fundamental Right: A Thought Experiment On The Constitutional Right To A Livable Climate, Melanie Hess

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

When civil rights lawyers sought to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson in the years leading up to Brown v. Board of Education, they faced a history of institutionalized segregation and inequality, constitutional acceptance of the “separate but equal” doctrine, and sharp social divisions on the issue. Other landmark cases of rights recognition, such as Obergefell v. Hodges and Roe v. Wade, similarly built upon years of evolution in law, precedent, and social opinion that made them inconceivable before their time. Early versions of the litigation strategies envisioning these judgments might have been tentative and vague, lacking in factual, legal, …

Beyond Culture: Reimagining The Adjudication Of Indigenous Peoples' Rights In Internationa Law, Beatriz Garcia, Lucas Lixinski

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

This article argues that the current model of Indigenous rights adjudication foregrounds essentialized notions of culture, backgrounding interests of Indigenous peoples (IPs) that are not necessarily related to culture. Culture imposes a burden that limits the possibilities of human rights for Indigenous peoples, which is at least in part attributable to the current model's lack of precision. We show that the jurisprudence on IP rights by international adjudicatory bodies focuses on culture without meaningful attempts to explain and define it, is imprecise on how culture affects the reading of the human right for which it serves as the basis, as …

International Law And Theories Of Global Justice, Steven Ratner, David Luban, Carmen Pavel, Jiewuh Song, James Stewart

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

International law informs, and is informed by, concerns for global justice. Yet the two fields that engage most with prescribing the normative structure of the world order – international law and the philosophy of global justice – have tended to work on parallel tracks. Many international lawyers, with their commitment to formal sources, regard considerations of substantive (and not merely procedural) justice as ultra vires for much of their work. Philosophers of global justice, in turn, tend to explore the moral commitments of international actors without grappling with the international legal doctrine or institutions. In recent years, however, both disciplines …

Climate Change, Environmentally Displaced Persons And Post-Sovereignty: An Assessment Of Normative Gaps And Potential Solutions In International Law, Thais Pinheiro Birriel

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyses the impact of natural and anthropogenic environmental disruptions in the dynamics of migration as well as its social, legal and political implications in the context of disasters and climate change. The complex case of environmentally displaced persons is examined and the capacity of existing international legal frameworks to address the needs of these group is reviewed. In this scenario, the study explores gaps and limitations of contemporary international law that directly relates to environmentally-induced displacement and concludes that the current international law regime is insufficient to protect environmentally displaced persons. Additionally, the thesis critically evaluates to what …

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental Racism, American Exceptionalism, And Cold War Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez