Date: March 26 2010
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Russell Square, London
4th annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference 2010
Trading towards unsustainability?
The legal challenges
PROGRAMME
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Opening and Welcome .
Frances Aldson, Publicity Officer, 2010 PIEL UK Committee
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Mr. Rufus Yerxa, Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organisation (WTO)
WTO and sustainable development (AUDIO HERE)
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Professor Geert Van Calster, University of K.U Leuven, Lead Lawyer, DLA Piper
Trade and sustainable development (AUDIO HERE)
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Special Announcement .
Niall Watson, Programmes Legal Adviser, WWF-UK
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Ms. Colleen Theron, Director, CLT Envirolaw, Legal Consultant, Lexis Nexis PSL,
The legal challenges to sustainable trading (AUDIO HERE)
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Mr. Francesco Sindico, Lecturer, University of Surrey, Deputy Director, Environmental Regulatory Research Group
Climate and trade interaction in the aftermath of the Copenhagen Accord (AUDIO HERE)
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Professor Johanna Gibson, Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Director,
Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute (QMIPRI)
Intellectual property and climate change (AUDIO HERE)
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Panel Discussion (AUDIO HERE)
Carbon trading, inequality in the carbon market
Mr. Malcolm Dowden, Solicitor, LexisNexis Legal
Mr. Tim Baines, Senior Advisor, Climate and Clean Energy, Norton Rose
Ms. M.J. Mace, Environmental Law Consultant
Mr. Tom Picken, International Climate Campaigner,
Friends of the Earth
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Final Words and Thanks .
Danielle Andrade, Co-Chair, 2010 PIEL UK Committee
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BIOGRAPHY OF SPEAKERS
Rufus Yerxa
Rufus H. Yerxa has served as Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since 2002.
His private sector experience includes both law practice and a senior corporate role. He was a resident partner in the Brussels office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where his practice focused on international trade matters and European regulatory affairs. He subsequently joined Monsanto Company, a leading producer of agricultural input products, where he was in charge of the law, government affairs and public affairs departments for Europe and Africa. He later served as Monsanto’s international counsel in Washington. In his capacity as U.S. representative to the GATT and as the Deputy United States Trade Representative in Washington. Rufus played a major role in negotiating and securing Congressional approval of both the Uruguay Round/WTO agreement and the NAFTA accord.
Mr. Yerxa holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Washington, a J.D. degree from the University of Puget Sound School of Law (now the Seattle University School of Law) and an LLB in international law from Cambridge University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.
Professor Dr Geert Van Calster
An alumnus of the College of Europe, Bruges (promotion Stefan Zweig), Prof van Calster is the Head of KU Leuven Law’s department of European and international law. Geert is director of Leuven Law’s Centre for Advanced Legal Studies, director of studies for the Master programme on Energy and Environmental law, and of the Master of Laws program. He is also a senior fellow at Leuven’s Centre for Global Governance Studies. A tenured chair of the Research Fund, K.U.Leuven, Geert is also a visiting professor at the China-EU School of Law in Beijing and was i.a. a visiting lecturer at Oxford University (Sept 2006 – Sept 2008). He was called to the Bar in 1999 after having worked as of counsel to a City law firm since 1995, and practices with DLA PIPER. Finally Geert is on the board of Academische Stichting Leuven, an academic charity.
Colleen Theron
Colleen Theron is recognized as a leading practitioner of environmental and health and safety law. Her experience covers transactional support for corporate, banking and property clients and the public sector, incorporating due diligence, environmental risk and liability management, environment insurance. She also provides stand-alone advice on a wide range of current and emerging issues in UK, EU and international law, including director’s personal liability and regulatory requirements of health and safety law. Colleen joined Lexis Nexis PSL this year. She retains an environmental consultancy with a city firm and runs her own consultancy (CLT Envirolaw) providing advise to companies on sustainability, CSR and environmental compliance and risk issues, including implementing BS8901for the events industry. She was previously the head of the environmental team at Lawrence Graham and a partner at ASB Law.
She regularly speaks at events and publishes in accredited journals. She is an executive member of the UK Environmental Law Association.
Francesco Sindico
Francesco Sindico joined the Law School of the University of Surrey Guildford on 20 August 2007. He has an undergraduate degree in Law from the University of Turin, Italy (2001) and an LLM in International Law and International Relations from the Autonoma University in Madrid (2003). He has worked as research fellow at the Universitat Jaume I in Castellón de la Plana, Spain (2004-2007), and he has been a EC Marie Curie research fellow at the Institute of Environmental Studies of the Free University in Amsterdam, a Visiting Researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University College London and at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva.
Francesco Sindico currently covers the following posts: he serves as Associate Editor of the Carbon and Climate Law Review; he is Programme Leader of the LLM Environmental Health Law and Deputy Director of the Environmental Regulatory Research Group (ERRG). He is also a member of the European Society of International Law and of the Spanish International Law Association.
Professor Johanna Gibson
Johanna Gibson is Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Director of the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute (QMIPRI) in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS). Johanna is also the Academic Director for the College’s QUEDOS project in professional development.” Johanna holds first class degrees in cultural and critical theory, animal sciences, and law. Before joining CCLS, Johanna practised law in Melbourne, Australia at Allens Arthur Robinson, specialising in Intellectual Property, Media and Communications Law and Competition Law.
Johanna works also on current policy and developments in the areas of biotechnology and intellectual property aspects of medicine, and her recent book, Intellectual Property, Medicine and Health (2009) examines the relationship between intellectual property, public health and human rights.
Johanna teaches Intellectual Property Aspects of Medicine for which she established the IPMed blog, and Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources on the Queen Mary LLM programme.
Tom Picken
Tom Picken is a climate policy advisor and campaigner for Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland. He is a specialist on the UNFCCC climate negotiations. His work includes highlighting the failure of carbon offsetting and carbon trading in tackling climate change;promotingalternative sources and mechanisms for ensuring climate finance supports developing countries; and in campaigning for international climate policies to give due regard to the rights of local communitiesto participate in environmental decision-making.
Malcolm Dowden
Malcolm Dowden is a UK based solicitor and environmental law consultant. He is a member of the LexisNexis Legal Intelligence team, producing online legal guidance and current awareness for practitioners. The author of EG Books’ Climate Change – Law, Policy and Practice (2008), Malcolm has contributed to Carbon Disclosure Project reports on climate change adaptation, and to a major London Climate Change Partnership report on ‘green procurement’. In 2006, Malcolm’s articles were cited in evidence to the Stern Committee on climate change. In December 2009, Malcolm will be attending the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen to provide reports and analysis for a range of LexisNexis journals and online services
Tim Baines
Tim Baines is a climate change and clean energy lawyer based in the London office of Norton Rose, LLP. His practice includes advising on a wide range of existing and proposed legislation in the UK, EU and internationally.
This encompasses monitoring developments and advising clients on issues such as the international climate change negotiations for post-2012, the implementation of Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), the inclusion of the aviation sector in the EU ETS and carbon capture and storage. Tim also focuses on the development of renewable energies legislation and policy, particularly in relation to renewable electricity generation and renewable transport fuels.
M.J. Mace
M.J. Mace is an environmental law consultant. Previously she was a lawyer with the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) in London. She served as Programme Director for FIELD’s Climate Change and Energy Programme, where among other things she provided legal advice and assistance to members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).
She worked for many years for the National Government of the Federated States of Micronesia, where she served as General Counsel to the FSM Supreme Court and subsequently as an Assistant Attorney General for the FSM Department of Justice. In the latter capacity, she represented the FSM at numerous climate change negotiations andparticipated in the UNFCCC Expert Working Group on Compliance. She has served as a guest lecturer on the Kyoto Protocol in UCL’s LLM course on International Environmental Law and SOAS’s Masters course on International Studies and Diplomacy. M.J. also practiced environmental law and international trade for Skadden, Arps in Washington D.C. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. She is admitted to practice law before the New York, Washington D.C., and Federated States of Micronesia Bars.
