Dr Peter Lawrence is an Adjunct Senior Researcher at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) Law School. Peter is interested in the interface between ethics, justice, climate change and international law. His interests include both substantive and procedural justice, including how national and international institutions which purport to represent future generations can be justified in terms of legitimacy. Peter is a co-founder and advisor of the Climate Justice Network which brings together researchers working on various aspects of climate justice with community activists. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance (ESG) Project, the world's largest social research network in governance and environmental change.

Biography

Prior to joining UTAS, Peter worked for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (1989-2004) Canberra which included working as the First Secretary for the Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva (1996-1999). This included leading Australian delegations negotiating environment agreements and chairing a contact group which produced the first rolling text of the optional protocol to the UN Convention against torture.   In 2013 Peter successfully defended his PhD at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. He published Justice for Future Generations, Climate Change and International Law (Edward Elgar Press, 2014). Peter has been an active member of the European Science foundation network on Human Rights to a Green future coordinated by the University of Utrecht Ethics Institute and was a visiting fellow at this Institute in 2016. Peter has made presentations in recent years at the University of Oxford, the University of Kobe Japan, ANU, Monash University, University of Sydney Law School, the University of Utrecht (Ethics Institute, Law Faculty, Middleburg Roosevelt College), Tilburg University Law Faculty, Oaxaca Mexico ESG Conference (2019), Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and Columbia Law School, New York. Peter co-founded (with Jan Linehan) the Climate Justice Network (CJN) in 2017 which ran the conference “Imagining a different future: overcoming barriers to climate Justice” in February 2018. The CJN ran a series of events in 2019 related to institutions for future generations. Following the sad passing of Jan Linehan in June 2022, Peter stepped aside as co-covenor of the CJN but continues in the role of advisor. Peter is a contributor to the Oxford Handbook on International Environmental Law and is one of the cofounding scientific coordinators of the Task Force on Earth System Law.

Peter - with his PhD student, Nicky van Dijk - is currently working on a research project with colleagues at the Munich School of Philosophy, Germany, on 'Representation of future generations: the global legal order and climate change (extend to end of 2023).

Peter can be seen performing Owen Davies' climate change songs on YouTube: see: It's Getting Hot, The Fracking Song and Ski Dubai

Career summary

Qualifications

Administrative expertise

Co-Convenor of the Climate Justice Network, involving a network which brings together academics and community activists interested in justice aspects of climate change policy.   With colleagues co-founded the Law Task Force on Earth System Law, which brings together legal experts within the Earth System Governance (ESG) Project the world’s largest earth change social science network.

Research Appointments

Cofounding scientific coordinator of the Task Force on Earth System Law.

Senior Research Fellow, Earth System Governance (ESG) Project.

Co-convenor Climate Justice Network (University of Tasmania)

Research Invitations

‘The Task Force on Earth system Law’, Keynote presentation for the conference Earth Laws Asia-Pacific, ‘Earth, Sea, Fire, Spirit’ 14-16 October 2020, organised by the Australian Earth Laws Alliance;

Presentation Earth System Governance (ESG) Conference, Oaxaca Mexico (2019);

Presentation, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, New York (2019);

Presentation, Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School, New York (2019).