In the American Branch’s first blogging symposium, various authors will address International Law Weekend 2024’s theme of ‘Powerless law or law for the powerless?’ from an International Environmental and Energy Law perspective. Earlier this year, the American Branch put out a call for abstracts addressing this theme. The International Environmental and Energy Law Committee Co-Chairs Carolina Arlota, Myanna Dellinger, and ABILA’s CCO Freya Doughty-Wagner selected the five best abstracts. These complete pieces will be published once a day, starting Monday, 24th June, and concluding on Friday, 28th June.

Symposium Overview

MONDAY: Empowering Law in Earth System Models by Yirong Sun

Yirong Sun is a Research and Teaching Fellow at Guarini Global Law & Tech (GGLT), and Institute for International Law and Justice at New York University, School of Law. She is a key contributor in GGLT’s newly launched Planetary Futures project, specializing in data and technology regulation and environmental use and impact of outer space infrastructures. She holds an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from NYU Law, an LL.B. from Tsinghua University School of Law, and minored in Economics at Tsinghua University School of Social Sciences.

Read here.

TUESDAY: Closing the Accountability Gap: The Urgency of Mandatory Corporate Climate Commitments by Eoin Jackson

Eoin Jackson is an incoming PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Chief of Staff/Legal Fellow for the Climate Governance Commission, Irish Rapporteur for the Sabin Center for Climate Change, and a Co-Director of Law Students for Climate Accountability UK. Jackson holds an LLM from Harvard Law School and an LLB from Trinity College Dublin.

Read here.

WEDNESDAY: Gwich’in Rights are Caribou Rights by Kimberley Graham

Kimberley Graham holds an MA in Environmental Law from the University of Sydney and a BA(Hons) in Natural Resource Management from the University of Melbourne. Graham is an Independent Specialist and Researcher; her research interests include diverse human relationships with animals and nature and how they are reflected in environmental legal regimes and political structures. She is a Member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment, and the Research Group on Rights of Nature & Animals.

Read here.

THURSDAY: Lessons from the Rana Plaza: Arbitrating Human Rights Claims against Transnational Companies by Galo Martín Márquez Ruíz

Galo Márquez is an Associate at Creel, García-Cuellar, Aiza y Enríquez specialized in  International Arbitration, Legal Assistant to former ICJ Vice-President, Judge B. Sepulveda  Amor, and Professor at Tec de Monterrey University in Mexico City. Galo is a Member of the Academic Forum on Investor-State Dispute Settlement and the   CAM/CANACO Forum Chair for Arbitration Practitioners. In 2024, he was awarded the Johnny  Veeder International Arbitration Scholarship.

Read here.

FRIDAY: Using Climate Financing as a Guide for Environmental Justice Compensation in Kiribati by Mariah R. Bowman

Mariah R. Bowman is a recent Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law graduate, having graduated with additional certificates in International Law and Environmental Law. Bowman has interned for the Indiana Department of Transportation, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations.

Read here.

Two blogs will also be published in the ABILA Summer Newsletter. We hope you enjoy ABILA’s first blogging symposium. Please look out for future calls for contributions and for one of our authors, Eoin Jackson, on the Emerging Voices panel at this year’s International Law Weekend.