Hosted across Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Wageningen University & Research, and Tilburg University, the Lab culminated in a final in-person session on March 12 and 13, 2026 in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The gathering brought together participants and experts to consolidate research, refine outputs and define audience, all interrogating the evolving role of international courts in shaping climate futures.
Courts, Climate, and Justice: Inside the Climate Justice Lab's Second Edition
Tilburg, Netherlands - March 2026
As climate litigation accelerates across jurisdictions, courts are increasingly positioned at the center of global climate governance. But what role should they play and what are their limits? These questions formed the core of the Climate Justice Lab's second edition, an interdisciplinary initiative convening early-career scholars, legal practitioners, and policy researchers to rethink the relationship between law and climate justice in a rapidly changing world.
Hosted across Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Wageningen University & Research,and Tilburg University, the Lab culminated in a final in-person session on March 12 and 13, 2026 in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The gathering brought together participants and experts to consolidate research, refine outputs and define audience, all interrogating the evolving role of international courts in shaping climate futures.
Dr. Corina Heri (University of Antwerp) gave the keynote speech, highlighting the duality of hope in climate justice. Dr. Juan Auz (University of Tilburg) provided the introductory lecture during the 1st day, and joining the open panel moderated by Prof. Phillip Paiement (University of Tilburg) was Dr. Laura Mai (University of Amsterdam). The session builds from the 1st in-person session at Wageningen University, supported by Prof. Louis Kotze (Wageningen University and Research).The event is spearheaded by Dr. Matthias Packeiser (Leuphana University of Lüneburg) and co-organized by Stephanie Vieira (Leuphana University of Lüneburg) and Chad Patrick Osorio (Wageningen University and Research).
From Jurisprudence to Justice
This year, the Lab's central theme-the role of international courts in a climate-changed world-reflects a broader shift in climate governance. With advisory opinions and judgments emerging from bodies such as the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea as well as national and regional tribunals, courts are no longer peripheral actors in the fight for climate justice.
During the course of the Lab, participants presented their work, critically examining how courts can influence state behavior, shape legal norms, and catalyze accountability. At the same time, discussions remained attentive to institutional constraints: questions of legitimacy, enforceability, and the risk of overburdening judicial systems with inherently political problems.
The defining strength of the Climate Justice Lab lies in its global participants: scholars from all over the world whose work bridges doctrinal analysis, empirical research, and policy engagement. This year's cohort reflects a shared effort to situate courts within broader systems of climate governance, approaching the question from distinct but complementary angles.
From a geopolitical and critical perspective, Iryna Ponedelnik (Alliance Green Belarus) interrogates the challenges of international legal enforcement in the context of Belarus, including the intersections between labor practices, and greenwashing. Sofia Tumaini (Africa Adaptation Initiative) demonstrates through the Lamu coal plant case how climate justice is co-produced by courts, media narratives, and community action, revealing a feedback loop between legal decisions and public discourse.
At the interface of law and markets, Roberta Amoriello (Business and Human Rights Expert) explores how litigation is increasingly operationalizing corporate accountability, particularly by enforcing human rights due diligence in voluntary carbon markets and REDD+ projects.
Paula Nieto (Erasmus University School of Philosophy) examines the foundations of judicial intervention in climate justice, with particular attention to how courts construct and communicate legal reasoning. Extending the role of courts beyond doctrine, Lila Garcia (Leuphana University of Lüneburg) analyzes the development of legal standards on climate-related human mobility, highlighting how amici curiae and advisory proceedings contribute to norm-building in emerging areas of international law.
Building on this, Paulina Rundel (University of Vienna) situates these interventions within the broader architecture of international law, exploring the possibility of intergenerational justice crystallizing as customary international law. In parallel, Nidhi Hanji (American Society of International Law) proposes for the recognition of climate protection as a jus cogens norm.
Taken together, their work underscores a central insight of the Lab: courts are not isolated actors, but embedded institutions whose influence depends on how legal reasoning, political context, and socio-economic realities intersect.
Looking Ahead
Unlike traditional academic workshops, the Climate Justice Lab is explicitly designed to bridge scholarship and practice. Participants are not only developing academic papers but also receiving feedback in reaching out to the general public. This orientation reflects a broader recognition: that climate law cannot remain confined to journals and courtrooms. It must inform policymaking, advocacy, and institutional design.
Despite the conclusion of the second in-person meeting, the Climate Justice Lab will continue its work in the coming months, with participants collaborating to finalize their research outputs for publication and dissemination.
As climate impacts intensify and legal systems come under increasing pressure to respond, initiatives like the Climate Justice Lab offer a glimpse of what the future of climate governance might look like: interdisciplinary, collaborative, and deeply attuned to questions of justice.
The Climate Justice Lab is expected to return for its 3rd edition.
