Soft law, hard law, crime? How to push the climate change agenda

When: Monday, September 26, 2022, 5:15 PM - 8:00 PM
Where: Lecture Theatre, Centre For Commercial Law Studies, 67-69 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A

This Roundtable Discussion will consider the types of regulatory strategies policymakers can employ in advancing the climate change agenda, discussing questions such as:

• What is the value of industry-led standards and certification mechanisms?
• Are voluntary standards a workable basis for businesses to embed, and for stakeholders to enforce, climate action?
• What are the challenges of more prescriptive government intervention and hard laws?
• What are the key components of an ex-post liability regime?
• Do we need a crime of ‘ecocide’?

We will also be announcing the finalists of our national student essay competition ‘Lawyers and Sustainability’. This event is part of the ‘Sustainability and the Law Series’ seminar series supported by funding from the Society of Legal Scholars Environment Section.

Programme

17.15 Arrival and refreshments

17.30 Welcome by the organisers, Dr Katrien Morbee and Dr Franziska Arnold-Dwyer

17.35 Introduction Chair, Dr Costanza Russo, and Discussants, Anna Kirkpatrick, Senior Associate in the Litigation, Dispute Resolution & Risk Management team at Clifford Chance LLP, Professor David Whyte, Director of the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice, and Jonathan White, Climate Programme Lawyer at ClientEarth

17.40 Roundtable Discussion on the Regulatory Strategies Towards a Greener Economy

18.20 Q&A

18.30 Break

18.40 Roundtable Discussion on Enforcement and Compliance in the context of Climate Change Obligations

19.20 Q&A

19.30 Announcement of the winner and runner-up of the national ‘Lawyers and Sustainability’ student competition and award of certificates

19.40 Drinks and networking

20.00 Close