Berkowitz/Finley Lecture Hall

Register online Lecture summary: The Energy Charter Treaty was concluded in 1994 on the assumption that fossil fuels could continue to be used for the foreseeable future. This article examines how ECT contracting parties can now withdraw from this treaty for climate change reasons without being subject to its 'sunset' clause, which protects existing investments for 20 years. It evaluates several strategies, including amendment and inter se agreements, and withdrawal on the basis of a fundamental change of circumstances (rebus sic stantibus). That fundamental change is not climate change itself, which was foreseen in 1994. It is the fact that, as recently stated by the IPCC, fossil fuels now need urgently to be abandoned, resulting in significant stranded assets. This was then unforeseen and radically transforms the extent of the ECT’s obligation to continue to protect existing fossil fuel investments for another 20 years. The article finally considers the implications of such a withdrawal for remaining contracting parties under Article 70 VCLT. Dr Tibisay Morgandi is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in International Energy and Natural Resources Law at Queen Mary University of London, School of Law. Professor Lorand Bartels is Professor of International Law, University of Cambridge

Lecture Summary: This lecture will discuss recent developments in the UN Climate Regime, focusing in particular on the mismatch between the increasing emphasis on temperature goals and target-setting under the Paris Agreement and its treatment of equity and fairness in delivering these goals and targets. Lavanya Rajamani is a Professor of International Environmental Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and Yamani Fellow in Public International Law, St Peter's College, Oxford. Prof Rajamani will be giving the lecture online but you are most welcome to attend in-person in the Berkowitz/Finley Room at the Lauterpacht Centre if you wish. There is a sandwich lunch in the Old Library from 12.30 pm. The Lauterpacht Centre Friday lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press

This in-person event, with an option to attend online, has been rescheduled from 9 May 2023. Chaired by Professor Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan and Dr Andrew Sanger On Tuesday 30 May 2023, the Lauterpacht Centre will host an inter-disciplinary panel discussion on reparations for slavery that focuses on the responsibility of private actors who benefited from—or were otherwise involved in—slavery. It will explore Haiti’s 1825 indemnification as a case study. As recent attempts to obtain reparations from private actors demonstrate (e.g., the Drax case in Barbados), there are many challenging questions of law and responsibility still to be resolved. These include the impact of time on liability/reparations (manifesting itself in legal doctrines of limitations, acquiesce etc), the difficulty of identifying substantive law for liability (and related questions of inter-temporality and the role of national institutions in developing legal liability), the challenge of identifying the relationship between the private actor and the enslavement that took place, the role of international law in such claims, and the relationship between the private actors and the state. The Panel will use Haiti's 1825 indemnification as a unique case study to explore the above- mentioned challenges. In 1825, France demanded—with warships—a 150-million-franc indemnity (reduced in 1838 to 90 million) to settle claims over property, which included people emancipated through the Haitian Revolution, in exchange for diplomatic recognition of Haitian independence and an end to French threats of invasion. To meet this demand, Haiti took significant loans from the French Bank Crédit Industriel et Commercial , with remainder of the debt eventually being moved to the US and US banks (e.g. to the National City Bank of New York—now Citibank. Imposed by abusive force, these debts inflicted crippling damage to the Haitian economy and the Haitian people over many years and yet the question(s) of reparations by state and private actors remains unresolved.

From 2009 to 2014, Baroness Catherine Ashton was the EU’s first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. She faced the challenge of representing the views and values of 28 nations during one of the most turbulent periods, from Russia’s invasion of Crimea to the Iran nuclear negotiations. All welcome to attend. Chair: Professor Marc Weller