WILD LAW AND ACTIVISM

A conference organised by members of the UK Environmental Law Association

Wild Law Special Interest Group

The Terrace Room, Bramber House, University of Sussex

Saturday 9 November 2019 

10am Coffee and Registration  

 

10.30am Welcome and Introduction Dr Helen Dancer Lecturer, Sussex Law School and UKELA Wild Law Special Interest Group   

10.45-11.45am Panel 1 – Global challenges: How are wild lawyers and activists responding? Chair: Simon Boyle, Environmental Law Director, Argyll Environmental  

This panel explores new ways of thinking about how law can protect the planet. From an international crime of ecocide to tackling climate change and threats to biodiversity, this panel discusses the kind of legal changes that are needed globally and nationally to establish accountability for environmental destruction and give nature a legal voice.   

Jojo Mehta, Ecological Defence Integrity & Co-Founder, Stop Ecocide campaign

Criminal law as moral medicine - change the rules, change the culture 

In our so-called "first world" culture, we define what is morally acceptable and what is not through criminal law.  Our current legal structures are (still) premised on the domination and exploitation of nature, and so we have not yet extended our moral abhorrence at crimes such as murder and genocide to damage done to the natural living world (ecocide).  Unless and until we do this, it will be difficult if not impossible to protect the rights of nature - and ultimately life on Earth. Jojo Mehta explains the power of a law of ecocide to address this fundamental issue of perception and catalyse the shift that is required.

Farhana Yamin, International Climate Change Lawyer and XR activist 

Why I broke the law for climate change 

On 16 April this year, I superglued my hands to the pavement outside the headquarters of the oil company Shell in London, surrounded by dozens of policemen. Once unstuck, I was arrested for causing criminal damage… Let’s be honest with ourselves. Our summits and 24 years of COPs have not delivered the bold action vulnerable countries and communities were asking for so long ago.... We must acknowledge our role in not going fast enough. The way we respond to the climate and ecological crisis unfolding before our eyes, personally and professionally, is going to make or break our chance to stay on the Paris pathway. What we need is not system change or personal change — it’s both. The time for half measures has run out. This is why, as I explain in Nature, I chose to break the law and become an activist. Like all parents, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep my children safe. Right now, that means rebelling against a way of being that is destroying their future. Join me!

Mothiur Rahman, Environmental Lawyer, XR activist and Director of Community Chartering Network 

Extinction Rebellion: Connecting Wild Law principles to activism

As a core member of Extinction Rebellion (XR), Mothiur has been involved in developing its vision for change and its political strategy. Mothiur will present on how that vision aims to place 3 marginalised voices at the centre for climate justice (future generations, the Global South, the more-than-human). He will give an overview of 2 different philosophical framings of Wild Law principles (deep ecology, social ecology) and propose that, as XR sees social justice as an inseparable element of climate justice, it is aligning itself more along the latter philosophical framing rather than the former (which is the framing through which Wild Law principles have often been presented). He will propose that Wild Law principles need to evolve to hear the call in such movements as XR/Youth Strike, and adapt itself to the emerging needs of contemporary society. 

Followed by Q&A and audience discussion   

12.00-1.00pm Panel 2 – Indigenous Activism Chair: Sandy Abrahams, Partner at Lux Nova, UKELA Wild Law Special Interest Group 

Indigenous peoples have been key to bringing about legal change based on rights of nature and relationships with the Earth. This panel invites a discussion of the challenges and successes of indigenous peoples and the strengths and weaknesses of using constitutional and statutory law to protect the Earth and the rights of indigenous peoples. 

Professor Irene Watson, Pro Vice Chancellor Aboriginal Leadership and Strategy, and Professor of Law at School of Law, University of South Australia Business School (by video link) 

Aboriginal futures: obligations and nature   

The challenge to the lives of First Peoples of the continent that is known as Australia should be obvious. It is colonialism. Colonialism’s impact on the lives of First Peoples and our relationships to country is devastating and ongoing. The success of First Peoples is that we have survived colonialism and continue to hold the authority and obligation to take care of our relationships to the natural world. Our authority comes from who we are and have been forever, or as science now describes as more than 60,000 years. But colonial power which ignores that authority has come at a cost, not only to the human but to all life forms on earth. What of Aboriginal futures and obligations to the natural world?

Manuela Ima, Indigenous Waorani activist with Natalia Green, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, Ecuador (by video link) 

Followed by Q&A and audience discussion 

1.00pm -2.00pm Lunch – a vegetarian buffet lunch will be served   

2.00pm-3.00pm Panel 3 – Wild Lawyers and Legal Practice Chair: Professor Donald McGillivray, Head of Sussex Law School   

This panel of legal practitioners will discuss how they use current law to defend nature through litigation and activism, the limits of this and ways forward. How are activist lawyers incorporating ecocentric ways of thinking into their current practice, and could a new ethical code for the legal profession expand this further?  

 

Paul Powlesland, Barrister Ely Place Chambers, Founder of Lawyers for Nature and founder of Lawyers for XR 

Making the rights of nature manifest, in the courts, in the fields and on the streets

With the ongoing destruction of the natural world, the biosphere and the climate, it is more important than ever to make the concept of wild law into a practical reality. In the absence of any likelihood of legislation granting such rights in this country anytime soon, the question turns to what other methods we can use to give rights to nature. Paul will talk about his experiences representing the natural world by appearing in court for activists seeking to protect it, from Sheffield tree protectors to those fighting HS2. He will also outline other imaginative ways that the rights of nature have been , and could be, brought into reality.

Tom West, UK Environment Lead, Client Earth

Lawyers for the Earth: Our role, reasons, and realities   

Tom will introduce and reflect on the work undertaken by environmental law NGO, ClientEarth. Considering what it means to be an environmentalist and a lawyer (rather than an environmental lawyer), the talk will outline the various ways in which ClientEarth works across different jurisdictions and policy areas. What does this look like in practice? What is the need for our role? What motivates and directs our actions?

Sandy Abrahams, Renewable Energy Lawyer and Partner, Lux Nova Partners

Law with Ethics: A Voluntary Ethical Code for the Legal Profession   

The legal sector has been slow to respond to both recognition of, and action to address the climate and ecological emergency. There is a real imperative to examine the legal profession’s role in this field, given the ability of the legal sector to both facilitate harm through their support of environmentally damaging actions undertaken by clients, and, conversely, their ability to influence positive change and positive environmental action.   Lawyers have a very limited code of ethics that speaks to the transactions that they facilitate, yet a lawyer’s commitment to behaving ethically should be at the heart of what it means to be a lawyer.   Law with Ethics will provide a voluntary code of ethics for the legal profession. The initiative is part of “A Stronger Environmental Story for Law”, a wider project which aims to initiate a step change in the UK legal profession’s acknowledgement of, and engagement with, the climate and ecological emergency at every level.   Law with Ethics will provide a framework and recognition for those lawyers and ultimately firms that ascribe to the Code and are willing to "divest" their services from those client transactions that could have a significant risk of severe environmental damage or risk to human health/ welfare.

Followed by Q&A and audience discussion   

3.10pm-4.10pm Panel 4 – UK Earth Law Judgments 

Dr Helen Dancer and Dr Bonnie Holligan, Sussex Law School, will launch the UK Earth Law Judgments Project, which aims to inspire eco-conscious ways of thinking among lawyers. Participants in the project will re-write existing (and imagine new) case law by taking ecocentric approaches to judgment-writing. What might or should an ecocentric jurisprudence look like in the UK? They will lead an interactive participatory session and invite future collaboration in the project.   

4.10-4.30pm Tea Break 

4.30pm-5.00pm Closing Plenary Session Chair: Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw, Barrister Advocate   

5.00pm Close

UKELA reserves the right to amend the programme at any time