Resources

Texts

The new book: ‘Climate Litigation in a Changing World’ (2022) by members of the expert group Jaap Spier with Bastiaan Kock is now available!

Click here to order a copy of the book.

The new book by Elizabeth Fisher and member of the expert group Brian Preston (eds.): ‘An environmental court in action’ (2022) is now available!

Climate Principles for Enterprises & Commentary (updated/second edition, 2020)

If you would like to order a hard copy, you can do so here (link leads to the publishers website).

Climate Principles for Enterprises & Commentary (first edition, 2018)

If you would like to order a hard copy, you can do so here (link leads to the publisher’s website).

Oslo Principles & Commentary

If you would like to order a hard copy, you can do so here (link leads to the publisher’s website).

Videos & Presentations

BIICL event: Corporate Climate Litigation project launch webinar, Thursday 17 November (COP 27 Egypt)

Jaap Spier delivered a presentation on the Climate Litigation and the enterprises principles. Click here for a video of the event.

BIICL event: The Climate Case against Total in France: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects

Jaap Spier delivered a presentation at a BIICL conference on the Total case in France, 29-6-2022. The full text of the presentation can be found here.

Presentation at the UNPRI

Click here to view a video (audio & slides) of a presentation delivered to investor signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, at which Brian Preston, Philip Sutherland, Jaap Spier and Daniel Witte of the Expert Group as well as David Pitt-Watson (former Chair, UNEP Finance Initiative) and Nathan Fabian (Director of Policy & Research, PRI) spoke. The event was held on January 24th, 2018.

Climate litigation: the heat is on!

On July 3rd, 2018, Jaap Spier presented on the Climate Principles for Enterprises at a seminar on climate litigation at the Allen & Overy office in Amsterdam. Click here for more information on this seminar. Access to the online webinar and the presentation slides is available upon request. Click here to get an access link, by sending an email stating your name and affiliation.

Publications & references

David Pitt-Watson, Letter: Asbestos payouts are a harbinger of costs of climate inaction, Financial Times, 20 May 2021.

A ground-breaking judgment in Germany, Climate Law Blog, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2021/05/10/guest-commentary-a-ground-breaking-judgment-in-germany/

Towards a high-level political declaration – a search for building blocks, A Blog by Jurists for Diplomats, Pathway to the 2022 Declaration, https://www.pathway2022declaration.org/article/towards-a-high-level-political-declaration-a-search-for-building-blocks/

Juridische verplichtingen van kernspelers, Nederlands Juristenblad, 2021, p. 981 ff. NJB13_Focus

PRI Collaboration Platform, Blog post, Principles on Climate Obligations for Enterprises | PRI (unpri.org)

David Estrin, Climate Concious Lawyering, Climate Conscious Lawyering, by David Estrin — Lawyers for Climate Justice

Jaap Spier, Webinar Series Report, British Intsitute of International and Comparative Law, https://www.biicl.org/publications/human-rights-due-diligence-for-climate-change-impacts-webinar-series-report

Brian J. Preston, Climate Conscious Lawyering, (2021) 95 ALJ 51.

David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, Safe Climate Reader Friendly Report 2019.pdf

FORUM-ASIA, Climate Justice; Navigating the Discourse, Working Paper Series Number 8: September 2020, Forum-Asia-Working-Paper-Series-No.-8_Final-01082020.pdf

Jaap Spier: “The “Strongest” Climate Ruling Yet”: The Dutch Supreme Court’s Urgenda Judgment, https://rdcu.be/b7dq1

Jaap Spier and Bastiaan Kock, Overcoming the deadlock: corporate responsibility in the face of climate change, Clyde & Co, 28 January 2020, https://resilience.clydeco.com/articles/the-corporate-world-has-long-been-aware-of-the-growing-threat-of-climate-change

The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, Environmental and Planning Law in the Age of Human Rights and Climate Change, (2019) 36 EPLJ 181, http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/2019/06/11/environmental-and-planning-law-journal-update-vol-36-pt-3/

Jaap Spier, Liability for climate change losses: a blessing or a curse? in Frits-Joost Beekhoven van den Boezem, Corjo Jansen and Ben Schuijling, Sustainability and financial markets, Wolters Kluwer, 2019, p. 59-83, https://www.wolterskluwer.nl/shop/boek/sustainability-and-financial-markets/NPSSTBFNM/.

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Turning up the heat: Corporate legal accountability for climate change, 2018, https://www.business-humanrights.org/sites/default/files/CLA_AB_2018_Full.pdf

Samvel Varvastian, Review of the Enterprises Principles, Carbon & Climate Law Review 12 (2018) Issue 4, p. 340-342, https://doi.org/10.21552/cclr/2018/4/10.

W. Kloosterman and M. Kuilman, Klimaatrisico’s, aansprakelijkheden en enkele toezichtrechtelijke aspecten, Maandblad voor Vermogensrecht 10 (2018), p. 295-303, https://dx.doi.org/10.5553/MvV/157457672018016010001.

Jaap Spier, Private law as a crowbar to come to grips with climate change? Report for the Royal Dutch Association for International Law (KNVIR), in Climate Change: Options and Duties under International Law, Asser Press, November 2018, p. 25-70

Jaap Spier, Strategies to keep global warming below 2 degrees and to avoid devastating liability, Paper prepared for PRI in Person Conference 2018 (San Francisco, USA), September 2018, https://custom.cvent.com/A7020F0F9A8247B2A6095E2EF0DC7D77/files/Event/5a2f15d64e534edb8f77813a1c7eb7de/cb1ae2a16cb54bb7a913403abf02e219.pdf.

Jaap Spier, Legal Obligations of Enterprises and Investors in the Face of Climate Change, Chinese Journal of Environmental Law 2, 2018, p.99-111, https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/24686042-12340025.

Jaap Spier, Shining the light on climate liability risk, UN Principles for Responsible Investment, 21 June 2018, https://www.unpri.org/climate-change/shining-the-light-on-climate-liability-risk/3328.article.

Jaap Spier, The Principles on Climate Obligations of Enterprises: an attempt to give teeth to the universally adopted view that we must keep global warming below an increase of two degrees Celsius, Uniform Law Review 23, Issue 2, 1 June 2018, p. 319-335, https://doi.org/10.1093/ulr/uny010.

Jaap Spier, Principles on Climate Obligations of Enterprises: an attempt to give teeth to the universally adopted view that we must keep global warming below an increase of two degrees Celsius, Uniform Law Review, uny010, 26 April 2018, https://doi.org/10.1093/ulr/uny010.

Jaap Spier, De Principles on Climate Obligations of Enterprises: een zoektocht naar concrete verplichtingen van bedrijven en beleggers, Milieu & Recht, 21 February 2018, p. 105 ff, https://www.navigator.nl/document/idb2cc4307ac624026a12696e3541c9321/milieu-recht-de-principles-on-climate-obligations-of-enterprises-een-zoektocht-naar-concrete-verplichtingen-van-bedrijven-en-beleggers

Lisa Benjamin, An industry sea change for enterprises and investors on climate change? Global Policy, 9 February 2018, https://www.geg.ox.ac.uk/industry-sea-change-enterprises-and-investors-climate-change

Principles on Climate Obligations of Enterprises: Guest Blog, blog entry at the Climate Law Blog of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia University, 23 January 2018, http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2018/01/23/principles-on-climate-obligations-of-enterprises-guest-blog/

Philip Sutherland, Obligations to Reduce Emissions: From the Oslo Principles to Enterprises, JETL 2017 p. 177 ff, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321206374_Obligations_to_Reduce_Emissions_From_the_Oslo_Principles_to_Enterprises

Jaap Spier, The Oslo Principles and the Enterprises Principles: Legal Strategies to Come to Grips with Climate Change, , JETL 2017 p. 218 ff, https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jetl.2017.8.issue-2/jetl-2017-0007/jetl-2017-0007.xml

UN Environment in cooperation with the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, Climate Change and Human Rights, 2015, http://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/9934/Climate-Change-Human-Rights.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y