About this event
The UCL Centre for Law and Environment will be hosting a timely event on the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s much-anticipated advisory opinion on climate change, which was delivered on 23 July 2025. This comes a little over two years since the United Nations (UN) General Assembly requested the ICJ to clarify the obligations of States under international law with respect to the protection of the climate system, as well as the legal consequences in case of their breach, and follows climate change-related advisory opinions by other international (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) and regional (Inter-American Court on Human Rights) courts. A record number of States and international organisations have engaged in the ICJ advisory proceedings, submitting written statements and oral arguments, which testifies to the importance that States and other stakeholders attach to the forthcoming advisory opinion.The event will be held on Thursday 2 October 2025, at 6pm, in Bentham House. A high-level panel of experts will discuss the significance and potential implications of the ICJ advisory opinion for international law and global efforts to address the climate crisis.
Chair:
Prof Gracia Marín Durán, Professor of International Economic Law, UCL Faculty of Laws.
Speakers:
- Prof Elisa Morgera, Professor of International Law and Sustainability at Durham University (UK) and Adjunct Professor in International and European Union Environmental Law at the University of Eastern Finland. She is the current UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change.
- Prof Martins Paparinskis, Professor of Public International Law at UCL Faculty of Laws (UK). He is a member of the UN International Law Commission (and its Chair in 2025), and represented Latvia in the ICJ advisory proceedings on climate change.
- Prof Philippe Sands, Professor of Law at UCL Faculty of Laws (UK) and Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard University (USA). As a practising barrister, he has often appeared as a counsel before the ICJ and other international courts and tribunals, and also sits as an international arbitrator.
- Dr Justin Sobion, Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Auckland (New Zealand). He has practised law for several years, served as an Associate Human Rights Officer at the Office of the President of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and acted as co-counsel for Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines at the ICJ advisory proceedings on climate change.
Image from Picryl
