Abstract

This talk will focus on the increasing trend of relying on the interests of future generations in climate litigation by litigants and the courts and will investigate the potential long-term implications thereof for environmental and climate governance. As a starting point, Dr Katalin Sulyok will explore the multilayered connection between the rule of law and the unfolding ecological and climate crises. The first part of the talk will then trace the common legal architecture of future generations lawsuits to basic rule of law guarantees and will show how an inter-generationally sensitive judicial reinterpretation of these safeguards drives the bulk of domestic and international climate cases. The second part will argue that such lawsuits can have a lasting impact on environmental and climate legislation as well as adjudication by exerting a decentralizing, diversifying, and restrictive force.

Speaker

Katalin Sulyok graduated from ELTE Law School with summa cum laude qualification in 2012. In 2013, she obtained a bachelor degree in Biology from ELTE University with excellent qualification. In 2016 she obtained an LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School as a Fulbright Scholar.

Since 2014 she is working as the head of department at the Office of the Ombudsman for Future Generations. She joined the faculty in 2016, where she has been working as Assistant Professor until 2018.

List of English language publications