28 May 2024: Dr Nilufer Oral was invited to speak at “The Promise of International Law in the Face of Ecological Crises” Conference co-organized by UCLA School of Law and the University of Amsterdam Law School.

In the wake of an escalating planetary crisis, the year 2024 stands as a pivotal moment for international law. This conference, held in Amsterdam from 27-29 May 2024, seeks to explore and harness law’s transformative power, reimagined through the lens of racial and environmental justice, to confront the challenges of our time.

Nilufer spoke at the first panel on “Unravelling the ITLOS Advisory Opinion: Climate Change, Justice, and the Future of the Law of the Sea”.

This panel delved into the groundbreaking implications of the Tribunal’s opinion, the critical role of evidence in the proceedings, and the potential impact on the future of climate change litigation and the law of the sea. The panel was chaired by Ms. Mónica Feria-Tinta, who began by offering context and analysis of the opinion and its significance, and featured panelists Ms. Naima Te Maile Fifita, Dr. Shobha Maharaj, and Professor Nilufer Oral.

“It’s been a long journey to get here and it’s a historic moment,” emphasised Feria-Tinta, who is involved in the advisory proceedings. Professor Oral explained the significant long-term implications of the opinion, emphasizing that the binding state obligations articulated by the court – that go beyond the consensus-based Paris Agreement and UNFCCC – cannot be ignored by states, and will send them back to review national legislation. Oral also stressed the unanimity of the Tribunal’s opinion.

As a legal advocate for the Coalition for Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), which submitted the request for the advisory opinion, Ms. Fifita offered her first-hand account of the proceedings, and also spoke to the potential of the opinion to protect small island developing states (also known as ‘SIDS’). Dr. Maharaj, a leading climate change scientist who provided evidence on behalf of COSIS in the proceedings, highlighted the need for more research and data from SIDS, explaining, for example, that while “those of us on the ground know there are major problems with health and migration”, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “could not make a statement about it because there is not enough published evidence.” Ms. Fifita also flagged the importance of including indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing. “We should set our standards high for scientific monitoring”, she said, hoping for “more room” for scientific knowledge from indigenous communities “to be used and seen as best available scientific knowledge.”

Watch the full panel discussion here.

More about the conference at the link: Conference: 27- 29 May; Amsterdam, the Netherlands (ucla.edu)