Past Public Events

Since 2008, the ICE Coalition has met publicly and privately with environmental, legal, business, academic and NGO stakeholders to discuss and debate how reform of current institutions and the creation of new ones can strengthen the international environmental legal order. To be sure, we need clearer, more specific, actionable obligations from international environmental treaties, but we also need mechanisms of enforcement to secure compliance with those mutually-agreed commitments.

As with writing articles and collaborating on projects with other organizations, public meetings are an important aspect of how we interact with the general public. If you'd like us to speak at your next conference, send us an invitation!

2008

In November 2008, a symposium on ‘Climate Change and the New World Order’ was held at the British Library to discuss the need for an international court for the environment. Speakers included Oliver Tickell, Nigel Griffiths MP, and Stephen Hockman QC. The Right Honorable Gordon Brown (then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) made statements that year in support of the ICE concept in the House of Commons.

2009

In March 2009, the Institute for International and European Affairs in Dublin invited Stephen Hockman QC to speak on the international court for the environment concept.

In April 2009, 6 Pump Court Chambers hosted a meeting to discuss the formal creation of the ICE Coalition.

In May 2009, Stephen Hockman QC and Peter Luff chaired a public presentation, at Portcullis House in London, of the Case for an International Court for the Environment.

In May 2009, following this first conference, the ICE Coalition organized an event for the formal formation of the Coalition, hosted by Herbert Smith.

In November 2009, a seminar titled, ‘A Case for an International Court for the Environment’ was hosted by the ICE Coalition and Global Policy (Journal), and chaired by Lord Anthony Giddens at the London School for Economics. Speakers included Veerle Heyvaert (LSE), Zen Makuch (Imperial), Donald MacGillivary (Kent), as well as Phillip Riches, and Stephen Hockman QC.

In December 2009, Philip Riches and Peter Luff made a presentation at the UNFCCC’s COP 15 in Copenhagen through Action for a Global Climate Community (AGCC) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). Rajendra Pachauri (Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) graciously agreed to speak in support of new international mechanisms such as the ICE concept at our side-event.

2010

In January 2010, Philip Riches and Stephen Hockman QC spoke about the work of the ICE Coalition at A4ID’s (Advocates for International Development) Annual General Meeting held in London.

In January 2010, Murray Carroll gave a presentation on the ICE concept to a group of students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Design. These students then created conceptual models of an ICE as a central element of their coursework.

In March 2010, Stephen Hockman QC spoke about the work of the ICE Coalition at the 8th Steinkraus Cohen lecture to the United Nations Association, in London.

In April 2010, Stephen Hockman QC made a presentation to the World Bar Conference in Sydney, Australia (where the proposal received the endorsement of Justice Brian Preston, Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales).

In May 2010, Stephen Hockman QC participated in a UKELA (United Kingdom Environmental Law Association) conference on environmental courts and made the case for an ICE.

In October 2010, Kirsty Schneeberger MBE gave a presentation at the College of Law – Bloomsbury, in London, on the need for an international court for the environment.

In November 2010, Murray Carroll gave presentations on the ICE concept for international environmental law graduate students at the London School of Economics and environmental student groups at Kent University.

Throughout 2010, the ICE Coalition sent representatives to the 2010 UNFCCC Bonn talks and Tianjin conference in order to follow the evolution of the negotiations. These representatives then went to Cancun and participated in the COP 16. Coalition members had the use of an exhibit space, participated in a side event and gave a presentation in a private ministerial event through Action for a Global Climate Community and informally through the Stakeholder Forum.

2011

In January 2011, Murray Carroll was asked to give another presentation on the ICE concept to a new group of students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Design. These students then created conceptual models of an ICE as a central element of their coursework. The best projects were chosen from the 2011 and 2010 courses and published as a book, and winning students were feted in London and New York.

In February 2011, Philippa Drew and Peter Luff attended the Civil Society Forum and the UNEP Governing Council taking place in Nairobi. They had the opportunity to meet a number of stakeholders to discuss the idea of an ICE. They were invited to speak in a side event organized by the Stakeholder Forum to discuss potential synergies between an ICE and the work of the United Nations Environment Programme.

In March 2011, Stephen Hockman QC spoke at a UNEP-Stakeholder Forum Conference titled “IEG, Sustainable Development Governance and Rio+20: A Stakeholder Consultation.” Other high level speakers included Achim Steiner, UN Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP.

In June 2011, Stephen Hockman QC spoke about the ICE concept alongside a panel of London School of Economics professors from the Law Department on “Institutional Structures for Transnational Law?” focusing on institutions and institutional features or challenges in individual regulatory domains.

In October 2011, in preparation for Rio+20, the ICE Coalition, the Stakeholder Forum, and DLA Piper hosted an all day conference providing an opportunity for different groups to discuss proposals and stimulate discussion on the theme of the institutional framework of sustainable development. Speakers included Professor Lord Giddens (LSE), Dr Bob Bloomfield (Natural History Museum), Kirsty Schneeberger (Stakeholder Forum), Joan Walley (Chair, Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee), Stephen Hockman QC (ICE Coalition), Gita Parihar & Pascoe Sabido (Friends of the Earth), David Banisar (Article 19), Polly Higgins (Eradicating Ecocide), Nicolo Wojewoda (Peace Child), Alice Vincent (World Future Council), Sue Riddlestone (BioRegional) and Farooq Ullah (Stakeholder Forum).

2012

In March 2012, Stephen Hockman QC chaired a panel discussion for the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference on ‘Benefits and Drawbacks of an International Court for the Environment‘. Speakers included Nicholas de Sadeleer (Universite Catholique de Louvain), Emma Dickson (Blackstone Chambers), Paul Horseman (Greenpeace), and Polly Higgins (Eradicating Ecocide Global Initiative).

In July 2012, the ICE coalition held a discussion event with interested campaigners and lawyers in New York, in the offices of the World Federalist Movement, Institute for Global Policy. Dr. Kenneth Smith, Stephen Hockman QC, Peter Luff, and Murray Carroll spoke to a group that included Ambassador Robert F. Van Lierop (current Vice-Chair of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation) and other delegates from the United Nations, representatives from philanthropic foundations, environmental non-governmental organizations, and the New York and American Bar Associations.

In October 2012, Stephen Hockman QC led a roundtable discussion with Judge Merideth Wright (Vermont Environmental Court and the Environmental Law Institute) held at 6 Pump Court Chambers in London. Among those present were Michael Meacher MP and David Hart QC.

2013

In February 2013, Murray Carroll spoke about the role an ICE could play within current international environmental regimes at the Harvard University Environmental Law Green Exchange. Other speakers included Professor Rick Reibstein (Boston University) and Edward Woll, Jr. (Sullivan & Worcester and the Sierra Club).

In February 2013, the ICE Coalition organized a symposium in London, hosted by DLA Piper LLP, to discuss: ‘Can the Law Save the Environment: What Next After Rio and Doha?’ with the Rt. Hon. Lord Carnwath (Justice of the Supreme Court), Jolyon Thomson (DEFRA, Legal Services), Rushanara Ali (MP for Bethnal Green and Bow), James Cameron (Chairman, Climate Change Capital), Farooq Ullah (Executive Director, Stakeholder Forum) and Teresa Hitchcock (Partner, DLA Piper).

In October 2013, a roundtable discussion was held at the Boston law offices of Weil LLP. Maria Ivanova (University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Secretary-General), Stephen Hockman QC, and Murray Carroll spoke to a group of delegates of the International Bar Association about the need for an ICE. Honored guests included Judge Merideth Wright (Vermont Environmental Court and the Environmental Law Institute) and Annette Magnusson (Secretary General of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce).

2014 to present

Since our organization's founding meetings in 2008-2009, ICE Council members have attended every United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - Conference of the Parties, and countless meetings in Bonn. In 2014, however, we received formal recognition as an Observer Organization within the UNFCCC ecosystem.

Since then, we have scaled back our public events and focused our outreach on other Observer Organizations and State Party Representatives within the UNFCCC community. This work is predominantly informal but remains fundamentally educational.

In December 2015, to acknowledge the importance of the COP21 meetings in Paris we held a roundtable discussion at the offices of Foley Hoag LLP to discuss the role lawyers could play in advancing global mitigation efforts within the UNFCCC process. International lawyers from around the world, including representatives from the International Court for the Environment Foundation in Italy, joined us in discussing the nexus between the clarity and precision of language used in international environmental agreement and the likely enforcement of binding obligations through national and international courts.

We invite you to join us as our work continues...