How can courts enforce the right to a healthy environment? And how are international courts, individuals and companies shaping the laws that will affect our futures?
It’s time for us to bring the law back to Transforming Tomorrow, to look at how the legal system is evolving as the climate is changing.
Camilo Cornejo Martinez, a PhD researcher in Lancaster University School of Law, joins us once again to discuss how verdicts and advisory opinions from across Europe, the Americas, and the world are shaping nations’ attitudes and behaviours.
We look at how the courts view the impact of human activity on the seas, the responsibilities of states when it comes to climate change, why even advisory opinions – and we explain what those are – have weight in courtrooms and law-making, and ask how does denouncing climate treaties affect a country’s legal position?
We discover how a group of students from Pacific states have made a major impact on international rulings; the obligations of nations to abide by the likes of the Kyoto Protocol – whether or not they signed the agreement; and how the International Court of Justice has surprised even the most optimistic climate lawyers with their opinions.
Plus, pirate courts!
Discover more about Camilo and his work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/about/meet-the-team/camilo-cornejo-martinez
And these are links to explanations about the various cases and advisory opinions that we discussed with Camilo:
Klimaseniorinnen case from the European Court of Human Rights (April 2024) - https://www.netzerolawyers.com/news-events/failure-to-act-on-climate-change-violates-human-rights-the-klimaseniorinnen-case
Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea -ITLOS- (May 2024) - https://www.biicl.org/blog/77/a-commentary-on-itlos-advisory-opinion-on-climate-change
Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (July 2025) - https://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2025/07/08/a-blueprint-for-rights-based-climate-action-the-inter-american-court-of-human-rights-advisory-opinion-on-the-climate-emergency/
Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the International Court of Justice (July 2025) - https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10354/
