Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice
Legal professionals are increasingly finding themselves struggling with ethical predicaments posed by the climate and ecological crisis.
The Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice (CCCCJ) at Queen Mary University of London School of Law runs events, produces research and coordinates teaching programmes that explore the connections between climate change, law and justice. It has a remit to support campaigns, organisations and individuals demanding climate justice and to produce educational resources that hold climate offenders accountable.
Monika Sobiecki (Laws LLM, 2024), a doctoral candidate at QMUL School of Law and a member of the Centre for Climate Crime and Justice and Eduard Zelinschi, a paralegal at Bindmans have recently published an article on CCCCJ blog about the legal profession increasingly grappling with the ethical predicaments posed by the climate and ecological crisis. they go on to say that "Lawyers Are Responsible (LAR) is a group of lawyers working to tackle the climate & ecological crises by seeking to challenge the legal profession’s role in enabling the actions of the fossil fuel industry. LAR’s mission is encapsulated in a Declaration of Conscience, where lawyers pledge to withhold their services from (i) supporting new fossil fuel projects; and (ii) action against climate protesters exercising their democratic right of peaceful protest. Recently, LAR commissioned a Counsel’s Opinion, which provides a crucial analysis of the rights and protections available to legal professionals in the United Kingdom who engage in ‘conscientious objection activities."
Read the full article Refusing legal work that causes climate breakdown online.
Find out more about CCCCJ and its work.