This seminar day brings together legal scholars, scientists, and practitioners to examine how evidence and legal argument are shaping the frontier of climate litigation. The day opens with a deep dive into the BR-319 highway licensing case in Brazil, which raises pressing questions about forest degradation, indigenous rights, and the evidentiary basis for legal action against environmentally destructive infrastructure projects. A morning panel will explore the facts of the case and the horizons for further legal action, featuring perspectives from Brazil, Colombia, and beyond.

A midday session turns to attribution science, examining how climate scientists' ability to link specific events and damages to climate change is being used, and tested, in courtrooms worldwide. The afternoon session looks ahead to the cases emerging in the wake of the International Court of Justice's landmark Advisory Opinion on climate change, considering what evidence and legal strategies are shaping this next generation of litigation. The day closes with a joint wrap-up and reflections from all participants.

PROGRAM  

 9.00 Welcome (Morning) 

Margaretha Wewerinke Singh (UvA/SEVEN) and Nabil Ahmed (NTNU/Climate Rights) 

09.30-11.30 Session 1:  The BR-319 Highway Licensing Case in Brazil: Forest Degradation Evidence and indigenous rights. 

Paulo Murillo - online (Universidad del Tolima-UT), Paulo Busse (Observatorio do Clima) 

11.45-12.45 Session 2: Attribution science as an emerging evidentiary methodology. 

Sol Kim (University of Chicago), Amaury Laridon (VUB), Caterina Selva (NTNU/Climate Rights), Martinus Suijkerbuijk (NTNU/Climate Rights),  

12.45 Lunch  

14.00-15.30 Session 3: After the ICJ AO on Climate Change, emerging cases and their evidence.   

Oskar Johanson (NTNU/Climate Rights), Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh (UvA/SEVEN), Joie Chowdhury (CIEL) online, Kanad Bagchi (PostDoc ACIL)