Law School, Corner of Grosvenor Crescent and Alexander Street, Sandy Bay Campus
Summary:Join the University of Tasmania's Faculty of Law and Professor Christa Tobler at lecture on climate change & the 2024 decision of the European Court of Human Rights
Presenter(s):
- Professor Christa Tobler
The University of Tasmania's Faculty of Law invites you to join them for a public lecture presented by Professor Christa Tobler, titled 'Climate Change and the "KlimaSeniorinnen" before the European Court of Human Rights – a legal and political thriller.'"
About the topic
In spring 2024, the European Court of Human Rights had to decide for the first time on a number of actions relating to climate change. One of these case was brought by very young people and one by an association of old women. Reading about these applicants, Australians will think of their own famous case of Sharma by her litigation representative Sister Marie Brigid Arthur v Minister for the Environment of 2021, where an old woman helped young people to go to court in a climate change case (although subsequently overturned). Before the European Court of Human Rights, only the case brought by the Association of old women succeeded. The Court held that the Signatory States of the European Convention of Human Rights have positive obligations in the context of the prevention of greenhouse gas emissions. It also held that Switzerland had breached this obligation. In the European context, the judgment is historic and unprecedented. The developments around it, both before the judgment was handed down and thereafter, make this case a legal as well as a political thriller.
Registration
To register your attendance, please RSVP to Law.Events@utas.edu.au by Friday, 28 February 2025, for venue capacity purposes.
About the speaker
Christa Tobler is Professor of European Law at the Universities of Basel and Leiden. She studied law at the University of Zurich where she obtained her law degree in 1985 and in1989 she was awarded a PhD based on her thesis on Swiss trademark law. She subsequently worked as a researcher at the Kyoto Comparative Law Centre and as a Court Clerk in Switzerland. In 1992 she passed the Zurich bar exam and then worked as an Attorney-at-Law. In 1994 she was awarded the degree "LL.M. in European Community Law" at the University of Leiden and held an internship at the European Court of Justice. She has held academic roles at University of Leiden (since 1995) and University of Basel (since 1998) and in 2005 was appointed Professor of European law at the University of Basel, and in 2007 at the University of Leiden. Her research specialisations are legal equality and discrimination and the complex legal relationship between Switzerland and the European Union.
