High Level Expert Group Meeting on Climate Justice

09.07.2021

The first High Level Expert Group (HLEG) meeting of 2021 took place on 9 July and provided an opportunity for practitioners and academics to identify, present, and discuss the legal challenges in respect of international, EU, constitutional, public, and private law, that courts and lawmakers are facing in connection with climate change related issues.

Larisa Alwin (Judge, The Hague District Court), Henrik  Andersen (Professor, Copenhagen Business School Law), Alberto De Franceschi (Professor, University of Ferrara), Tim Eicke (Judge, European Court of Human Rights), Pasquale  Fimiani (Deputy General Public Prosecutor, Italian Supreme Court), Eva-Maria Kieninger (Professor, University of Würzburg), Lavanya Rajamani (Professor, University of Oxford), Christina Voigt (Professor, University of Oslo), Gerhard Wagner (Professor, Humboldt University), Gabriel Wedy (Professor, Federal Judge and University do Vale do Rio dos Sinos) and Marc-Philippe Weller (Professor, University of Heidelberg) met to investigate the major legal issues that emerge from the debate on climate protection in a holistic perspective, from the point of view of substantive and procedural law, examining both public and private law aspects. ELI Second Vice President, Pascal Pichonnaz, joined the meeting, which was organised by Tomasz Dudek, Senior Project Officer.

ELI is grateful to the experts for their preparedness to devote their time and expertise to this initiative and share their knowledge with ELI. The issues identified during the meeting will feed into the development of the proposal for ELI project on Climate Justice – New Challenges for Law and Judges, which will be examined by the ELI Executive Committee and Council in due course.

ELI started with a series of HLEG meetings in 2019 with the aim of expanding and balancing its project portfolio. Despite the difficulties posed by the current COVID-19 pandemic, which is still causing disruption and unrest around the globe, the Institute decided to continue with this important initiative also this year.