On February 22, 2024, the Tokyo High Court ruled against an appeal in the Yokosuka climate case. The case was filed by 45 residents in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture in 2019. The residents sought an injunction to block the construction of 2 coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) which had been […]
Upon the initiative of the United Nations Human Rights Council (the UNHRC), a new legally binding agreement regulating transnational business enterprises’ human rights violations is likely on its way. If / when the Treaty is adopted and enters into force, it will have a significant impact on corporate liability. The […]
The Advisory Opinion handed down by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on 21 May 2024 is truly remarkable. Its clarification that all anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, from any source, constitute marine pollution has potentially far-reaching consequences. Under the United Nations Convention of the Law […]
Introduction ‘Historic’ and ‘unprecedented’ are two adjectives that could easily apply to the advisory opinion rendered by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on May 21, 2024. Of course, these adjectives have also been used to describe many other recent judgments delivered on the topic of […]
On May 21, 2024, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) released its long-awaited advisory opinion on climate change. The opinion was requested in 2022 by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, which asked ITLOS to opine on States’ obligations to […]
A long-standing conundrum of international environmental law is that the territorially-based, sectoral legal structures we have created to address environmental issues do not match the interconnected, interdependent nature of ecosystems. For many, this problem is writ large in the climate context. Whereas the science—synthesized in recent assessments and special reports […]
On May 21, 2024, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) delivered a long-awaited Advisory Opinion on climate change and international law. This marks the first time that an international tribunal has issued an advisory opinion on State obligations regarding climate change mitigation. The Advisory Opinion addresses […]
Introduction There has been a common question emerging in recent greenwashing cases across Europe: to what extent must companies provide a holistic impression of their business in their advertisements? Companies that highlight only the sustainable or ‘green’ parts of their businesses have come under fire from consumers, NGOs and rival […]