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Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance

Legal Mobilizations on the Frontlines: Lawyering for Environmental and Social Justice Amid Economic Globalization

Civil society is to a great extent the only reliable motor for driving institutions to change at the pace required (IPCC, 2018: 352). With increasing impacts of climate change and insufficient institutional change, much depends on the capacity of civil society and the legal mobilisation of communities to press for a deeper re-ordering of our socio-economic structures. In this workshop, we create a space for exploratory exchanges on how to enable and amplify the influence of communities and civil societies through law. Organised by Professor Christina Eckes (UvA) and Professor Phillip Paiement (Tilburg)
Date
16 July 2024
Time
10:45 -17:30
Please register here to join us online or in person at the Amsterdam Law School

Programme

10:45 Introduction – Phillip Paiement (Tilburg)

11:00 Three decades of community lawyering: Reading Gerald Lopez’s Rebellious Lawyering

A group discussion focused on a selection of Gerald Lopez’s Rebellious Lawyering, a classic early account of frontline, community legal practice, oriented towards the evolution of community, public interest, and frontline legal mobilizations over three decades and into the present climate and environmental crises. The book makes us think about different forms of legal practice and how they each offer different opportunities for intervention into the governance of the climate and environmental crisis.

Discussion moderated by André Nunes Chaib (Maastricht) introducing the book

Interactive discussion with all participants, including Thalia Viveros-Uehara (Tilburg)

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Comparative accounts of frontline legal mobilizations in regional contexts

A roundtable engaging lawyers from different regional contexts, including legal mobilization for land rights in Africa and counter-authoritarian and environmental rights legal mobilization in South America, as well as community driven climate justice from the South Pacific. The idea of the panel is to exchange about the experiences in working closely with communities in legal mobilization.

Speakers: Eva Maria Anyango Okoth (International Land Coalition); Fabio de Sa e Silva (U of Oklahoma); Cecilia Vieira de Melo (EarthRights Brazil); Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh (UvA)

Discussion moderated by Christina Eckes (UvA)

14:30 Break

16:00 Mobilizing across Global Value Chains: where community legal practice meets global economy

A roundtable reflecting on the opportunities that global value chains offer for legal mobilization and the opportunities and challenges that arise from working in between the sites of powerful economic actors and the communities exposed to their value chains.

Speakers: Marissa Vahlsing (EarthRights); Debadatta Bose (Tilburg), Klaas Eller (UvA), Nicky Touw (OU)

Discussion moderated by Phillip Paiement

17:30 Close

With support from Transformative Effects of Globalisation in Law
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