Hot Tips on Litigating to Cool the Planet and Freeze the Assault on Nature: Building Impactful Strategic Litigation from Conception to Close

Climate defenders try to raise the alarm through legitimate protest yet are increasingly finding themselves silenced by the tactics of polluting companies who seek injunctions and huge costs. What can we do to defend their interests while challenging the root cause of the problem – the destructive acts of those companies?

This seminar will consider how to apply recent successes in the courts more broadly and imaginatively to protect our precarious planet.

Specific topics that will be addressed include:

• Taking on a campaign and litigation
• Experiences of working with an NGO
• Tackling injunctions, protecting protest rights, disruption and dissent 
• Taking inspiration from climate litigation across the globe.

The seminar will be chaired by Abigail Holt.

Speakers
Abigail Holt, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Abi specialises in environmental law and climate justice. She worked on the “Zero Hour” Campaign for the cross-party Climate and Ecology Bill, aiming to implement the Paris Agreement. Her current practice includes industrial disease work, including asbestos litigation, which aims to hold polluters accountable. Abi’s scientific background in epidemiology supports her asbestos litigation practice. Abi has a strong grounding in EU and Human Rights Law. In 2023, Abi was involved in research in relation to the EU Health Governance movement where academics attempt to generate public health-related policies applicable across the EU.

Stephanie Harrison KC, Garden Court Chambers
Described as a "brilliant advocate", Stephanie is a leading public law practitioner who has appeared at all court levels. Her multi-disciplinary practice spans the breadth of public law and civil liberties. She is regularly involved in test case litigation and has been instrumental in winning some of the most important cases within her areas of specialism in recent times. Much of her work is high profile and receives media coverage. Stephanie was appointed as legal counsel to the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2015. Stephanie is ranked for Administrative and Public Law, Civil Liberties and Human Rights and Immigration in both the Legal 500 and Chambers UK Bar Guide. 

Paul Clark, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Paul provides representation and advice in public, civil, environmental and international law. He is an established practitioner in the field of climate justice, as well as in international and domestic human rights law. He acted for the Applicants in the ground-breaking case of Duarte Agostinho and others v 33 States before the European Court of Human Rights, challenging the climate targets and policies of all of the state respondents. He also represented ‘Climate Action Network Europe’ in Carvalho & others v European Parliament & Council in which people challenged the EU in order to protect their fundamental rights from the insufficiency of the EU’s 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction target.

Acland Bryant, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Acland is developing a broad practice in administrative and public law, specialising in environmental law and climate justice. He has expertise in all aspects of domestic and international environmental law, working with international environmental NGOs, charities, activists and individuals impacted by environmental degradation and climate change. Acland also has significant experience in planning law, particularly in assessing the environmental and climate impacts of planning applications. His previous role as a Parish Councillor involved considering planning applications affecting the parish and its residents, alongside enforcement applications and appeals. His practice now extends to planning inquiries and public law challenges to planning decisions.

Sarah Finch, Climate Campaigner 
Sarah campaigned, with the Weald Action Group, against Surrey County Council’s decision to grant planning permission for oil production at Horse Hill in Surrey. She took her climate justice case all the way to the UK Supreme Court and won. The Supreme Court agreed with Ms Finch that it was inevitable that greenhouse gas emissions would result from the burning of the oil produced, that those emissions were clearly indirect effects of the development, and that the Council’s failure to assess and consider the impact of those emissions on the climate and global warming was unlawful. This ground-breaking judgment will have wide ramifications in the UK and beyond its borders. Sarah was represented by Marc Willers KC of Garden Court and supported by NGOs Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace UK.

Reserve your in-person or online ticket
Please fill in the form below to reserve your in-person or online ticket. In-person tickets are limited to the capacity of the venue. After you have completed the form, we will be back in touch to confirm your in-person place at this event. 

If you have booked an online ticket, we will send joining details to everyone who has signed up on the day of the event. Please check your junk inbox if you have not received the link by Wednesday 11th September. If you have not received the link by 3pm on Wednesday 11th September, and it is not in your junk inbox, please email webinars@gclaw.co.uk.