Reimagining law for the Earth
The 21st Annual Law Reform Lecture explored the rapidly evolving field of Earth law and the opportunities and challenges it presents for law reform and legal decision making.
View the event recording below.
This year we welcomed a distinguished panel of guests to discuss how Earth law, including rights of nature, environmental human rights, wellbeing of future generations, ecocide, animal law, and reinterpretations of existing legal principles, can be captured and developed in practice.
- View the presentation
- View the book: 'UK Earth Law Judgments, Reimagining Law for People and Planet'
About the speakers and panellists
Dr Helen Dancer, co-editor alongside Dr Bonnie Holligan and Dr Helena Howe of the anthology UK Earth Law Judgments: Reimagining Law for People and Planet, presented key themes from the anthology and the possibilities it offers for envisioning what the future of legal decision-making could look like.
Zoë Leventhal KC, a barrister at Matrix Chambers and sitting on the Bar Council Climate Crisis Working Group, presented her view on the role of law reform in assisting the rights of nature, along with some highlights of the developing case law in this area.
Kyle Lischak, the Head of UK at ClientEarth, discussed some of the wide-ranging work that ClientEarth does to protect the rights of nature including proposing the reform of how laws are written, to how they are applied and interpreted.
Dr Bonnie Holligan and Dr Helena Howe joined the speakers to answer questions from the audience after the panel discussion.
Speakers
Dr Helen Dancer
Dr Helen Dancer is Senior Lecturer in Law and Anthropology at the University of Sussex and jointly leads The UK Earth Law Judgments Project. Her work in the field of legal anthropology and Earth law is dedicated to the protection of forests, women’s and Indigenous Peoples’ land rights, and the ecological concerns of local communities and future generations. She takes a transdisciplinary approach to research, making peoples' experiences, ways of knowing and legal claims the starting-point. She has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Tanzania, the UK, and Ecuador, and has presented her research around the world. Prior to academic life, she practised as a barrister in child and family law.
Dr Bonnie Holligan
Dr Bonnie Holligan is Senior Lecturer in Property Law at the University of Sussex. Her research looks at how property rights shape, and are shaped by, our social and ecological relationships. Her current book project explores the commodification of environment, examining the role of property rights in markets in environmental goods and services, such as carbon credit and emissions trading schemes, and the creation of new types of property interest such as the conservation covenant. She co-leads the University of Sussex Environmental Justice Law Clinic, which works with the Environmental Law Foundation and other external partners.
Dr Helena Howe
Dr Helena Howe is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Sussex. Her research lies at the intersection of property, environmental and animal law, with a focus on sustainable agriculture and the legal protection of farmed and companion animals. Uniting these fields is a particular interest in relationships between humans, other animals and land, and the opportunities offered by Earth Law approaches to reshape those interactions. Her current work focuses on multi-species justice in the law and policy of farming and on the legal regulation of animal breeding, for which she chairs a working group of the UK Centre for Animal Law.
Zoë Leventhal KC
Zoë Leventhal KC of Matrix Chambers practises in all areas of public law, human rights and environmental law, and has been involved in many of the leading cases in these areas in recent years. She is a strong advocate for urgent action on the linked climate and biodiversity crises. Zoë was a founder member of the Bar Sustainability Network and sits on the Bar Council's Climate Crisis Working Group. In 2024, she was nominated in the Legal 500 inaugural ESG awards as one of the Bar's Sustainability Champions. Zoë was elected as a local councillor in 2023 and dedicates time outside the law to a number of environmental projects in Warwickshire, including river restoration, rewilding and air quality.
Kyle Lischak
Kyle Lischak is a practising international lawyer and currently the Head of UK at ClientEarth, where he leads on a number of initiatives focusing on environmental advocacy within the United Kingdom.
Previous to this, Kyle was Head of Legal at the Met Office, the UK’s national meteorological and climate service, for more than seven years. Before that, he worked as principal solicitor at Natural England. He has also worked in private practice and within the environmental non-profit and public sectors in the United States.
Eleena Misra KC
Eleena is the Chair of the Law Reform Committee of the Bar Council of England and Wales. She is a specialist Employment & Equalities silk with complementary expertise in Professional Discipline & Regulation and Public Law. Eleena is particularly active in the healthcare and education sectors. She has broad experience ranging from high value financial services disputes, injunctions involving confidential information and restraint of disciplinary proceedings, and investigations into sensitive sexual misconduct allegations. Additionally, Eleena undertakes inquests and related judicial review work, and has a Diploma in Forensic Medicine.
She is also a member of a variety of Middle Temple committees, an advocacy trainer and writes, lectures, and delivers training in her principal areas of practice.
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