About us

2008

• A symposium on ‘Climate Change and the New World Order’ was held at the British Library to discuss the need for an international court for the environment. Speakers included Oliver Tickell, Nigel Griffiths MP, and Stephen Hockman QC. The Right Honourable Gordon Brown (then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) made statements that year in support of the international court for the environment concept in the House of Commons.

2009

• We were invited to speak at the Institute for International and European Affairs in Dublin.

• 6 Pump Court Chambers in London hosted a meeting to discuss the formal creation of the International Court for the Environment Coalition.

• We chaired a public presentation at Portcullis House in London arguing the case for an International Court for the Environment.

  In May 2009, following this first conference, the International Court for the Environment Coalition organized an event for the formal formation of the Coalition, hosted by Herbert Smith.

• We participated in a seminar, ‘A Case for an International Court for the Environment’ was hosted by the International Court for the Environment Coalition and Global Policy (Journal), chaired by Lord Anthony Giddens at the London School for Economics. Speakers included Veerle Heyvaert (LSE), Zen Makuch (Imperial), Donald MacGillivary (Kent), as well as Phillip Riches, and Stephen Hockman QC.

• We made a presentation at the UNFCCC COP 15 in Copenhagen through Action for a Global Climate Community (AGCC) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). Rajendra Pachauri (Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) spoke in support of new international mechanisms, including an international court for the environment, at our side event.

2010

• We spoke about the work of the International Court for the EnvironmentCoalition at the A4ID’(Advocates for International Development) Annual General Meeting held in London.

• We gave a presentation about the concept of an international court for the environment coalition to a group of students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Design. These students then created conceptual models of an international court for the environment as a central element of their coursework.

• We spoke about the work of the International Court for the Environment Coalition at the 8th Steinkraus Cohen Lecture to the United Nations Association, in London.

• We made a presentation to the World Bar Conference in Sydney, Australia, where the proposal received the endorsement of Justice Brian Preston, Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales.

• We participated in a UKELA (United Kingdom Environmental Law Association) conference on environmental courts and made the case for an international court for the environment.

• We gave a presentation at the College of Law, Bloomsbury, in London, on the need for an international court for the environment.

• We gave presentations on the international court for the environment campaign to graduate students at the London School of Economics and environmental student groups at Kent University.

• We sent representatives to the 2010 UNFCCC Bonn talks and Tianjin conference to follow the evolution of the negotiations, participate in a side event and gave a presentation in a private ministerial event through Action for a Global Climate Community and informally through the Stakeholder Forum.

2011

• We attended the Civil Society Forum and the UNEP Governing Council in Nairobi to meet a number of stakeholders and discuss the idea of an international court for the environment. We were also invited to speak in a side event organised by the Stakeholder Forum to discuss potential synergies between an international court for the environment and the work of the United Nations Environment Programme.

• We spoke at a UNEP-Stakeholder Forum Conference, ‘IEG, Sustainable Development Governance and Rio+20: A Stakeholder Consultation’, alongside high level speakers including Achim Steiner (then UN Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP).

• We spoke about the international court for the environment concept alongside a panel of London School of Economics professors from the Law Department on ‘Institutional Structures for Transnational Law?’ focusing on institutions and institutional features or challenges in individual regulatory domains.

• In preparation for Rio+20, the International Court for the Environment Coalition, the Stakeholder Forum, and DLA Piper hosted an all-day conference providing an opportunity for different groups to discuss proposals and stimulate discussion on the theme of the institutional framework of sustainable development. Speakers included Professor Lord Giddens (LSE), Dr Bob Bloomfield (Natural History Museum), Kirsty Schneeberger (Stakeholder Forum), Joan Walley (Chair, Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee), Stephen Hockman QC (International Court for the Environment Coalition), Gita Parihar & Pascoe Sabido (Friends of the Earth), David Banisar (Article 19), Polly Higgins (Eradicating Ecocide), Nicolo Wojewoda (Peace Child), Alice Vincent (World Future Council), Sue Riddlestone (BioRegional) and Farooq Ullah (Stakeholder Forum).

2012

• We chaired a panel discussion for the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference on ‘Benefits and Drawbacks of an International Court for the Environment‘. Speakers included Nicholas de Sadeleer (Universite Catholique de Louvain), Emma Dickson (Blackstone Chambers), Paul Horseman (Greenpeace), and Polly Higgins (Eradicating Ecocide Global Initiative).

• We held a discussion event with interested campaigners and lawyers in New York, in the offices of the World Federalist Movement, Institute for Global Policy. Dr. Kenneth Smith, Stephen Hockman QC, Peter Luff, and Murray Carroll spoke to a group that included Ambassador Robert F. Van Lierop (current Vice-Chair of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation) and other delegates from the United Nations, representatives from philanthropic foundations, environmental non-governmental organizations, and the New York and American Bar Associations.

• We led a roundtable discussion with Judge Merideth Wright (Vermont Environmental Court and the Environmental Law Institute) held at 6 Pump Court Chambers in London. Among those present were Michael Meacher MP and David Hart QK.

2013

• We spoke at the Harvard University Environmental Law Green Exchange, alongside Professor Rick Reibstein (Boston University) and Edward Woll, Jr. (Sullivan & Worcester and the Sierra Club)

• We organised a symposium in London, hosted by DLA Piper LLP, to discuss: ‘Can the Law Save the Environment: What Next After Rio and Doha?’ with the Rt. Hon. Lord Carnwath (Justice of the Supreme Court), Jolyon Thomson (DEFRA, Legal Services), Rushanara Ali (MP for Bethnal Green and Bow), James Cameron (Chairman, Climate Change Capital), Farooq Ullah (Executive Director, Stakeholder Forum) and Teresa Hitchcock (Partner, DLA Piper).

• We held a roundtable discussion at the Boston law offices of Weil LLP. Maria Ivanova (University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Secretary-General), Stephen Hockman QC, and Murray Carroll spoke to a group of delegates of the International Bar Association about the need for an international court for the environment. Honored guests included Judge Merideth Wright (Vermont Environmental Court and the Environmental Law Institute) and Annette Magnusson (Secretary General of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce).

2014 - the present

• Since our organisation's founding meeting in 2008, we have attended every UNFCCC COP meeting and received formal recognition as an Observer Organisation to the UNFCCC in 2014. Over the course of several years we have scaled down our public-facing events and are focusing on direct political advocacy and building a grassroots campaign.