Symposium: Human Rights Court Room

Translating Climate Science for the Human Rights Court Room: An Interdisciplinary Encounter between Science and Law

Science climatique et Juges Droits de l'Homme/ Climate Science and Human Rights Courts,

Thank you to all the speakers and participants of last Thursday's symposium co-organised by FERED/SAGE/Ghent University and ERC Dissect.

You can watch or rewatch the sequenced videos or full sessions on the MISHA youtube channel:

Replay

 Thursday 2nd March 2023 (9.00 am-6.00 pm)

In light of the increasing pressure on international human rights adjudicative bodies to adjudicate on matters related to climate change, this symposium brings together eminent contributors from various disciplines to comment on the interpretation of climate science within the judicial setting. Acknowledging that judges will be tasked to engage in this complex, interdisciplinary exercise, the symposium seeks to mirror this complexity by bringing together scientists, historians and legal experts discussing comparative approaches to climate litigation, potential pitfalls, practical challenges as well as options for successful climate litigation before human rights adjudicative bodies. Underpinning this is the endeavour to provide a base line of understanding for various aspects of climate science: ranging from attribution questions concerning distinct emitters to quantifying ambition targets for individual states. The aim of this symposium is thus of two-fold nature: 1) knowledge sharing and providing an instructive part for legislators to use as guide posts when confronted with complex climate science; and 2) opening up an interactive forum between the different disciplines to facilitate a multi-layered, rich understanding of each other’s work.

 

To see the program

 

Speakers:

  1. Pascal Boeckx (Professor, Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University)
  2. Moreno di Marco (Associate Professor Dept. of Biology and Biotechnology of Sapienzo University of Rome)
  3. Helen Keller (Former Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Judge at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Professor for Public Law and European and Public International Law Law at the University of Zurich)
  4. Ioannis Ktistakis (Sitting Judge at the European Court of Human Rights)
  5. Natalia Kobylarz (Senior Lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights)
  6. Yann Robiou du Pont (PhD, climate scientist and consultant, Utrecht University)
  7. Rupert Stuart-Smith (Research Associate in Climate Science and the Law at the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme)
  8. Eve Truilhé (Professor of Law, Director of research at CNRS, UMR DICE) & Laura Canali (PhD candidate at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Aix-Marseille University)
  9. Noah Walker-Crawford (PhD, ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Political Science, climate change and climate litigation, University College London)
  10. Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh (Associate Professor of Sustainability Law at Amsterdam Law School)