How can courts enforce the right to a healthy environment? And how are international courts, individuals and companies shaping the laws that will affect our futures?
It’s time for us to bring the law back to Transforming Tomorrow, to look at how the legal system is evolving as the climate is changing.
Camilo Cornejo Martinez, a PhD researcher in Lancaster University School of Law, joins us once again to discuss how verdicts and advisory opinions from across Europe, the Americas, and the world are shaping nations’ attitudes and behaviours.
We look at how the courts view the impact of human activity on the seas, the responsibilities of states when it comes to climate change, why even advisory opinions – and we explain what those are – have weight in courtrooms and law-making, and ask how does denouncing climate treaties affect a country’s legal position?
We discover how a group of students from Pacific states have made a major impact on international rulings; the obligations of nations to abide by the likes of the Kyoto Protocol – whether or not they signed the agreement; and how the International Court of Justice has surprised even the most optimistic climate lawyers with their opinions.
Plus, pirate courts!
Discover more about Camilo and his work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/about/meet-the-team/camilo-cornejo-martinez
And these are links to explanations about the various cases and advisory opinions that we discussed with Camilo:
Klimaseniorinnen case from the European Court of Human Rights (April 2024) - https://www.netzerolawyers.com/news-events/failure-to-act-on-climate-change-violates-human-rights-the-klimaseniorinnen-case
Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea -ITLOS- (May 2024) - https://www.biicl.org/blog/77/a-commentary-on-itlos-advisory-opinion-on-climate-change
Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (July 2025) - https://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2025/07/08/a-blueprint-for-rights-based-climate-action-the-inter-american-court-of-human-rights-advisory-opinion-on-the-climate-emergency/
Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the International Court of Justice (July 2025) - https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10354/
Transforming Tomorrow
Sustainability is a key consideration for any contemporary business, from biodiversity to modern slavery, seabeds to factory floors. On Transforming Tomorrow, we’ll guide you through the complex, ever-changing and often exciting (yes, really!!) world of sustainability in business. Alongside members of the Pentland Centre, academic experts, and business leaders, we cover the theory and practice of mainstreaming social and environmental sustainability into purposeful business strategy and performance.
Whether you are leading change in your business, or just want to know more about how asteroid mining may influence the future of sustainability, Transforming Tomorrow is the show for you.
Taking you through it all are your hosts, Jan and Paul, who bring insight, perspective, and not a little amount of disagreement, to all the subjects.
Join us every Monday to uncover new insights and become a little more inspired that you can make a difference in sustainability.
You can find transcripts for most episodes at: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/resources-for-education-and-practice/transforming-tomorrow-podcast/transcripts/
Send your questions on any of the issues we discuss in Transforming Tomorrow to [email protected] or fill in our feedback form here: https://forms.office.com/e/7Bw4rDiRDt
Find out more about the Pentland Centre and its work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/
https://doc.your-brochure-online.co.uk/Lancaster-University_Transforming-Tomorrow/
Meet the Hosts
Professor Jan Bebbington is the Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University. Jan is an expert on accounting, benchmarking (to her co-host’s annoyance), and how business and sustainability intersect.
Jan loves nature and wants to protect it – and hopes she can change the world (ideally for the better). She is also motivated to address inequality wherever it is found and especially to eliminate forced, bonded or child labour. Transforming Tomorrow is one small step on that quest.
Paul Turner is a former sports journalist who now works promoting the research activities in Lancaster University Management School – a poacher turned gamekeeper as his former colleagues would have it.
Paul has always been interested in nature and the natural environment – it comes from growing up in Cumbria – and has been a vocal proponent of the work of the Pentland Centre since joining Lancaster University. He does not like rankings and benchmarking, and is not afraid to say so.