Sundarbans, one of the world’s largest mangrove forests and a UNESCO world heritage site, is experiencing the devastating effects driven by climate change. Faced with the life-threatening consequences of rising sea levels, aggressive cyclones and flooded farmland, how can those living on the frontline of climate change access climate justice?

 

This event launches a new project in which King’s Legal Clinic, in partnership with Doughty Street Chambers in London and West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences and Jadavpur University in India, seek to raise awareness of this problem and look at how climate justice could be delivered.

Join us at our exciting online project launch event, with an expert panel of speakers who will discuss transnational legal remedies for climate change and how law students can help deliver access to climate justice.

 

Monday 1^st November 2021

1.00pm – 2.15pm UK time; 6.30pm - 7.45pm India time

Speakers and panelists:

Chair: The Rt. Hon. Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill, retired Justice of the UK Supreme Court
Former Supreme Court Judge Lord Carnwath has given many leading environmental law judgments and has been joint chairman of the judicial advisory committee for the UNEP handbook on environmental law and a member of the UNEP International Advisory Council on Environmental Justice. He is also Visiting Professor in Practice at LSE’s Grantham Research Institute and works to promote the role of law in combatting climate change.

• Professor Tuhin Ghosh, Director, School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University
  Professor Ghosh has over 20 years experiences of climate-related research in Sundarbans covering a range of areas including coastal geomorphology, disaster management, climate change impacts and adaptation strategies.

 

• Krishnendu Mukherjee, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers
  Krishnendu Mukherjee is a barrister and Indian advocate at Doughty Street Chambers in London. His family originate from Kolkata and his interest in the effects of climate change in the Indian Sundarbans is from 2008, when he first visited those displaced by island loss on Sagar Island. Krishnendu’s work in India on environment and other human rights issues has led to a belief that change can only come from an understanding of the needs of rights-holders and the fact that any response needs to be both holistic and collective.
  
  
• Sanjula Chakraborty, law student at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
  Sanjula will discuss her experiences carrying out field surveys and interviewing Sundarbans islanders.
  
  
• Dr Palash Halder, Geologist from Gosaba Islands in the Sundarbans
  
  
• Ankita Chakravarty, Assistant Professor, West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
  Prof Chakravarty is Assistant Professor at NUJS with expertise in Sociology and Law.
  
  
• Emily Barritt, Senior Lecturer and Co-Director, Transnational Law Institute, King’s College London
  Dr Barritt’s research interests include environmental law, access to justice, and climate change adjudication and she has published widely in these areas. Her recent book The Foundations of the Aarhus Convention Environmental Democracy, Rights and Stewardship(Hart 2020) offers a purposive analysis on this important innovation in access to environmental justice.

Closing: Rt. Hon. Justice Madan B Lokur, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India and current Judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji
Rt. Hon. Justice Madan B Lokur served as Judge of the Supreme Court of India from June 2012, and currently serves as Judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji since 2019. He was recently appointed by India’s Supreme Court to head a committee to monitor the effects of rising pollution levels in Delhi, in particular, the instances of stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

Final remarks and thanks: Sue Willman, Assistant Director of King's Legal Clinic and Lecturer in Law (Education) 
Sue Willman is Assistant Director, Lecturer and Supervising Solicitor in the King’s Legal Clinic where she leads the Human Rights and Environment Clinic. She is also a senior consultant at Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors where she litigates a mix of public law claims with a focus on international law, migrants’ rights and environmental law. Like Emily Barritt, she is a member of King’s Climate Law and Governance Centre.